He said the success was not merely a figure in a chart on paper, but on the contrary, he had personally met with and listened to their success stories.
“This afternoon, after launching the MRT in Damansara, I proceeded directly to Klang to visit and meet with the small and medium entrepreneurs from the Indian community who came from various backgrounds.
“Each of them had impressive success through the government initiative under the Special Secretariat to Empower Indian Entrepreneurs, or SEED, a unit under the Prime Minister’s Department,” Najib wrote in his official blog, najibrazak.com.
The prime minister said he began the visit by dropping at the cable-making factory, Lotus Cable Industries Sdn Bhd, and chatted with several workers at the factory.
Najib also related how a factory operator, known as Manivanan, was one of the recipients of the aid fund from the SME Bank under the Business Accelerator Programme and who succeeded in expanding his business and providing many employment opportunities.
In his post, the prime minister also shared the story of a woman, Premalatha who was a trader and fishmonger who previously worked at a factory before venturing into business at the night market.
Najib said after receiving training and assistance from Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, Premalatha is now a successful entrepreneur and owns a house, besides two cars, a motorcycle and could afford to send her child to the university.
“There are many other success stories shared by them here, including restaurant operator, Jagabar Ali, air-conditioning entrepreneur, A Paramesvaran, hotel operator, Pravin, candy entrepreneur Srithren who is now also a Marry Brown fast food restaurant franchisee.
Najib said one similarity from the success stories was how benefits were received through the efforts and initiatives of SEED and the various programmes initiated for the purpose with the participation fee at just RM1.
He said SEED also played the role of mediator, to show the right path and introduce entrepreneurs to programmes and assistance offered by the various government agencies like SME Bank, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, MIDF and many more.
In fact, Najib said, some entrepreneurs could penetrate bigger markets by obtaining Halal certificates from the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim).
In his posting, Najib also uploaded a number of pictures taken when he met entrepreneurs involved in such programmes.