Rep suggests smalltime traders explore bigger markets

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Talib (sixth left) officiates at the opening of FKSM 2023. – Photo by Abang Ismail Abang Su’ud

BINTULU (March 2): Smalltime traders have been asked to expand their businesses by promoting products to a bigger market, expanding relationships with commercial traders, as well as selling products online.

In making these suggestions, Jepak assemblyman and Jepak Jaya Development advisor Datuk Talib Zulpilip said traders can purchase or produce local products for sale to bigger markets.

“I saw in Kuching for example, there are people in the village taking midin and then putting them on the jetty to be sold, later bought by a towkay, who sent it to a big restaurant as a dish,” he said when opening the Sarawak-Melaka Entrepreneurship Festival (FKSM) 2023S at Naim Street Mall Paragon Bintulu yesterday.

He said this approach enables smalltime traders to increase their incomes by bringing products from the farm to a bigger market.

“The concept is not only to produce entrepreneurs but also enable them to grow bigger,” he said.

According to him, the business sector needs to change, for example during the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of Covid-19, many smalltime traders started doing business online.

Talib said when compared to the old ways of selling by the roadside, especially in unknown locations, the new ways demanded roadside traders promote their products more actively.

At the same time, he said traders in this region need to improve their relationship with traders from outside, even as far as Melaka, as this could help them to increase and expand their businesses.

“Sometimes we don’t know that a product exists due to lack of promotion and there is a need to build relationships with other traders,” he said, adding that smalltime traders should also promote their products for sale on social media platforms to attract more visitors and buyers.

He said entrepreneurs have an important role in economic development and called on them to be more creative in marketing their products.