With the Bumiputera Congress about to commence tomorrow (Feb 29), all eyes and ears will be focused on what remedies will be promoted to lift the marginalised in the B40 group out of poverty.

The marginalised Bumiputeras are domiciled in rural and semi-urban environments, where development is behind the rest of the country, and consequently exhibit sluggish economic growth. Most inhabitants live on modest family incomes, with elevated levels of poverty.

It’s most likely that only some members of the younger generation have undertaken any post-secondary education.

Common to all these areas is the perceived lack of economic opportunity, which allows poverty to continue from generation to generation.

This cohort of Bumiputeras is grossly disenfranchised. The effects of the New Economic Policy (NEP) have not reached these communities. Consequently, people living in these areas significantly lack resources and are unable to borrow.

They also don’t possess any other form of capital, or at least capital that could be utilised to earn any meaningful income. They lack the skills and capability needed to embark upon new business enterprises. They lack the networks needed for any such business and so don’t have the opportunities that other Malaysians may have.

This is the poverty of a lack of opportunity, a poverty that brings with it a sense of hopelessness and despair.

Members of the forthcoming Bumiputera Congress must not be lured into any false sense of reality while drinking lattes in cafes around the venue.

According to Khazanah Research, the size of the informal economy back in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, was 34-39%.

This would be higher in the regions I am talking about.

Another estimate from the department of statistics Malaysia put the informal economy at 3.5 million people in 2021. Informal employment was 57% of the workforce.

Which figure one takes doesn’t matter, the informal economy is the key to raising the prospects of Bumiputeras.

However, this is a complex problem and must be solved with complex solutions that are varied to suit the different geo-socioeconomic terrains of the Malaysian economy.

There is a solution but it won’t come from Industry 4.0, online and virtual marketing channels, or university education. The problem won’t be fixed by handouts, subsidies or giving GLCs social responsibility to assist. Obtaining foreign direct investment to build factories in these areas will only attract foreign workers.

None of these are silver bullets.

Malaysia must embark upon a drive to nurture new entrepreneurs, who can become self-sufficient and add value to the regions they live in. Adding value is the best way to improve productivity, which is currently a major issue facing the Malaysian economy.

This means educating marginalised people and reframing the way they think. They must learn (entrepreneurship can’t be taught) to think entrepreneurially. This means they must learn to think strategically, practically, how to acquire resources, develop capabilities and to be able to network.

This is the entrepreneurial mindset.

We know the university system has failed to achieve this. The TVET (technical and vocational education and training) system would be a much better forum for entrepreneurship learning. Yet this must be completely reconfigured, so that people are assisted to think the way an entrepreneur should, and later run their business when it is established, which requires yet another set of skills.

However, nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset is only half the story. People need to be taught a craft, technical skills and have access to technology they can use and which requires minimal capital.

Thus, any entrepreneurship courses must be grounded in both creating the mindset and the technology they will need.

This will definitely not be Industry 4.0 technology, but rather appropriate technology, that is homebuilt on a shoestring budget.

University research could play a massive role here and work directly with these novice entrepreneurs. Research grant schemes must be restructured accordingly.

There also needs to be new ways to finance them, such as community banking. Community banking has been very successful in neighbouring countries, so it should also be successful in Malaysia.

This is a new vision for Bumiputeras. This will empower the marginalised. The risk in the coming Bumiputera Congress is that it may focus on the Bumiputera community which is already wealthy.

The solution is not about calling for more research into the marginalised, but move straight into action research, producing new start-ups in marginalised Malaysia straight away.

This is my hope for the Bumiputera Congress.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.