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Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Badawi has assured Malaysians that SME loans will be given to small and medium sized industry business owners regardless of their races.

He told the press that the SME banks are not only  government-linked institutions but also commercial and financial institutions.

What it means is that any entrepreneurs wishing to get some capital from the banks will be able to do so provided the meet all the required guidelines.

Some parties have been asking questions of whether the loans by SME banks are biased towards bumiputras only.

An expected total loan of more than 3 billion ringgits are being committed to make the SME development program a success.

Technorati Tags: sme bank, sme bank malaysia

Majlis Amanah Rakyat, MARA is set to train more entrepreneurs in various fields to create Malaysian entrepreneurs success stories. Aspiring entrepreneurs will be trained in different careers and sectors including cloth making, cosmetics, automotive, reflexology and others.

This is part of Malaysia’s government effort to produce more than 10,000 entrepreneurs for the 9th Malaysia Plan project. There will be a total of 28 courses available to choose by participants.

In view of this, MARA has already signed memorandum of understanding with a few major companies including Naza Bike Sdn Bhd, Samata Industries and Prima Export Food Complex. These companies have agreed to provide on-job training for youths and those aspiring to be entrepreneurs.

Technorati Tags: mara, majlis amanah rakyat, malaysia entrepreneur, malaysia government

If you’re thinking of expanding your knowledge, read! Yes, reading enhances your knowledge and feed you with unlimited information and news.

By reading motivational materials you will get your feet standing back on two feet when you’re down and demotivated. By reading the newspapers you get yourself acquainted with the latest happenings within Malaysia and around the world. By reading magazines, you trade your waiting moment for your next flight to Langkawi with a precious knowledge sharpening session. It goes on and on.
Yes, just read anything. Books, ebooks, novels, newspapers, magazines and so on. This leads to question: how much you should read?

Well, according to research in the US, the highest paid Americans read an average of two to three hours per day.

How do we fare? Sadly enough, the reading habit of Malaysians is very low. On average 1 person only read one book per year! Isn’t that shocking. More than 70% of adults do not go into bookstores and libraries.

It seems we rather watch movie than reading.

Have you read any book today?

Technorati Tags: reading habit, motivation, book

Finally, Malaysia Airlines decided to offer major discounted price for the passengers travelling domestically within Malaysia. As many as 250,000 discounted tickets will be up for grab, which price will be as cheap as RM9 for a one way journey.

The fares to 23 destinations range from RM9 to RM199 and are available from today until Feb 6.Â

The offers are also to promote higher volume of tourist movement within Malaysia in conjunction with the Visit Malaysia year 2007.

Even though the overall Mas discounting policy is much way below of those offered by its counterpart Air Asia, but this is a good sign for healthy competition to come. Air Asia has gone a long way by offering 1 million free tickets for 2007 season, and is even planning to send flight between Malaysia to Europe at a staggering price of RM9!
To book you ticket, MAS official website at www.malaysiaairlines.com

Technorati Tags: mas, malaysia airlines, malaysia airlines system

Yesterday News Straits Times Malaysia reported that a woman from Terengganu took home roughly RM100,000 of income in 2006 by selling cosmetics products to villagers and other people.

Zainun Tahir, a full time housewife, spent more than 12 hours per day promoting Avon’s products including lipstics, compacts, brooches, lingerie, shampoo and many others. As a result, she won the 2nd top distributor prize of all Avon distributors in Malaysia.

She would go around the village convincing people to buy Avon products, and she managed to get around 30 people buying her products every day.

Well, 12 hours a day sounds like a very taxing job, but don’t you think the final rewards are very much worth it? After all, RM100,000 means a gross monthly income of RM8,000 per months, higher than most of the mid level managers in corporate organizations in Malaysia.

If a housewife can do it, why not us?

Technorati Tags: nst malaysia, news straits times, avon malaysia

A plan to double the periods for English lessons will be tried out in schools in a bid to boost the pupils’ proficiency in the language.

A pilot project to give Year One students 18 English lessons a week instead of the present eight would begin soon in 50 schools, said Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon.

The year-long project, called “ELiTE or Early Literacy Through English programme”, will see the Mathematics and Science lessons, of which there are seven and three periods a week respectively, effectively turned into English lessons.

The Mathematics and Science teachers will continue teaching their pupils but their focus will be to get the seven-year-olds more comfortable with the English language.

“We have selected schools with poor results in the English language, especially those in the rural areas. We want to give them a strong foundation so that the pupils can grasp the subjects better in the following years. This means giving them greater exposure to English from the start,” Ahamad said.

Full story from News Straits Times.

Technorati Tags: news straits times

Yahoo Inc posted on Tuesday a 61% drop in quarterly profit, weighed down by option expenses.

Weighed down in part by US$56mil in stock option expenses, Yahoo’s fourth-quarter net income fell to US$269mil compared with the year earlier quarter’s US$683mil. – Reuters

Technorati Tags: yahoo, yahoo profit

Malaysian bumiputra graduates should be encouraged to be self-dependent rather than rely on and hoping for government assistance all the time, said Sin Chew Daily.

The paper said that in the early 1990s these graduates had hardly any unemployment problem because the Government would try its best to absorb them into the civil service, government-linked companies (GLCs) or agencies.

However, things have changed as the Government decided to reduce the number of civil servants in the aftermath of the economic crisis they found it difficult to get jobs. Currently, it said, even though the GLCs and agencies were still the first choice of bumiputra graduates, the number of graduates outnumbered the vacancies.

The paper added that the retraining programmes for unemployed graduates, which not only waived the training fees but also gave them a RM500 subsidy, made them more dependent on the Government.

“Many recipients of the subsidy are not keen to look for jobs, as they feel the Government will take care of them,” it claimed.

More story is on The Star Online.

Technorati Tags: sin chew daily, the star malaysia

Prime Minister Datuk Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Malaysian Bloggers need to be responsible for what they write on the Internet as there are laws on defamation and sedition. According to him these laws were enforceable and bloggers must bear in mind that they could not hide or take advantage of the Internet to do or say things that are against the law.

“They cannot hope to cover themselves or hide from the laws,” he told Malaysian journalists at the end of his three-day working visit here yesterday.

Abdullah was commenting on the legal action against bloggers Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan by the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP), its deputy chairman Datuk Kali-mullah Masheerul Hassan, Group Editor in Chief Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and former Group Editor Brenden John Pereira.

He raised the question of “what was freedom without responsibility,” saying that laws must be respected.

Technorati Tags: malaysian blogger, malaysia blog, abdullah badawi

Kedah, the rice bowl of Malaysia, is fast growing from an agriculture-based economy to an industrial economy, reports The Star

It has started attracting foreign direct investment by the billions.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said that Kedah can expect at least RM4bil in foreign direct investment (FDI) this year.

Kedah is enjoying a sound macro economic environment with Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) growth exceeding 6%, increasing FDI and robust growth in industrial production specifically in hi-tech, biotech and manufacturing sectors.

More than 460 manufacturing companies have set up operations in 25 industrial parks in Alor Star, Jitra, Bukit Kayu Hitam, Sungai Petani, Tikam Batu, Kuala Ketil and Kulim.

Gurun, is poised to be the automotive city in the northern region with the existence of the NAZA automotive manufacturing plant. Gurun also houses Petronas Fertilizer, Perwaja Steel and MODENAS Manufacturing.

Kulim Hi-Tech City, dubbed the Science City of the Future, is a self-contained township housing 35 multinational and local high-technology companies including Intel, Sony, Celestica, Sumitomo, Silterra, Fuji Electric and Infineon.

The RM21bil hi-tech park that boasts high quality infrastructure and facilities is poised to be the national centre for advanced technology manufacturing, ICT, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

Mahdzir said Kedah offers enormous business opportunities ranging from hi-tech, bio-tech, research and development, power generation, healthcare, petroleum refining, education to agricultural product manufacturing.

InvestKedah is promoting itself as the ultimate profit centre.

Kedah is also tapping its potential in the tourism industry.

The world-renowned island Langkawi is part of Kedah.

Kedah is now aggressively promoting potential attractions on mainland Kedah with the catchy tagline ‘Mainland Kedah - More to discover’.

Among the better-known attractions on mainland Kedah are Tree Top Walk in Sedim, Lembah Bujang Archaeological Museum, Sungai Merbok, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s birth place in Alor Star and the Padi Museum at the foot of Gunung Keriang.

Technorati Tags: kedah, naza, kulim