DUE to an overwhelming response last year, the Penang government through the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC) has come out with a programme beginning October, specifically for the aspiring female entrepreneurs.
State Social Development and Non-Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman Chong Eng said the Penang Women Entrepreneur Mentoring Programme 2.0 would be held to encourage more female entrepreneurs to be involved in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“We aim to have at least 40% of women in SMEs by 2030 and we need to have about 100,000 registered female entrepreneurs.
“Hence, this programme is important to achieve our goal.
“Last year, a total of 138 people had registered for this programme, out of which 105 had successfully completed the six-month course.
“For instance, the effectiveness of this programme can be shown after their average incomes had increased for the last few months.
“Through this programme, we are committed to ensuring gender equality as the women play an important role nowadays,” she said during a virtual press conference today.
Chong Eng pointed out that this mentor-mentee programme was also able to increase the participants’ involvement in any opportunities.
“In the upcoming programme, we expect to have a total of 150 mentees and 35 mentors.
“Those with entrepreneurship knowledge can register themselves as mentors in this programme.
“For mentees from B40 households, the commitment fee is RM100, while for M40 and T20 mentees, the fee is RM600 for this five-month programme,” she added.
The programme was designed with the support of WomenBizSENSE, Penang Women Chamber of Commerce (PWCC), JCI Pearl, Malaysia Social Development Foundation, National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia (NAWEM) and TAMARAI.
State Entrepreneurial Development, Trade and Industry Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain thanked PWDC for such initiative.
Also joining the virtual session was PWDC chief executive officer Ong Bee Leng.
Register now at the following links and the closing date is on Aug 19.
Mentor – https://forms.gle/Z6oA6sXbi4bUuMQe7
Mentee – https://forms.gle/W6X1N71W54aS2rJE9
Story by Edmund Lee
Pix by Law Suun Ting