Month: August 2022

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 (Bernama) — Business owners and entrepreneurs need creativity and responsibility to succeed, especially to endure difficult times, said Malaysian icon Professor Datuk Jimmy Choo, OBE.

The international shoe designer said most successful businesses or entrepreneurs never gave up on their ideas, especially when faced with challenges, and they always find innovative ways of overcoming obstacles.

He said entrepreneurs must be able to adapt to changing economic conditions and innovate as well as embrace technological advances to keep customers engaged.

“If you think your business will fold, then you must find out why. Try to change your approach, business model or plans to make it work.

“If there is something you don’t know, you should ask people. If you keep quiet, you will never learn,” he said on Bernama TV’s “The Nation” talk show today.

He stressed that business owners need to have a new story to tell customers as the best form of marketing is through word-of-mouth.

“Organise and take care of your employees and most importantly, take responsibility for their well-being,” he said, adding that taking a more employee-centric view of their workforce would help business owners show their employees they care about and appreciate them.

This, in turn, would enable the company to be looked up to in the business they are operating in, Choo explained.

The international fashion icon’s famous clients include the late Princess Diana and members of other royal families.

In September last year, Choo launched a London fashion school called JCA London Fashion Academy. The school offers fashion design courses that combine the latest teachings in contemporary design with the entrepreneurial skills required to set up and drive successful fashion brands.

He said that education is of utmost importance because one gains a lot of knowledge and from there, new skills can be developed.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

SHAH ALAM, Aug 19 (Bernama) — The Selangor Health Department will be inspecting the food trucks and stalls participating in the Keluarga Malaysia Aspirations (AKM) tour twice a day to ensure food safety and quality, said its director Datuk Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman.

He said the Health Ministry’s Food Safety and Quality Division will carry out the inspection to ensure the operators keep their trucks and stalls clean and sanitised throughout the three-day carnival.

“This inspection will be carried out twice a day, in the morning and evening. The implementation of the inspection aims at ensuring food operators that are conducting business at the carnival maintain an optimal level of cleanliness to avoid food poisoning incidents.

“All food operators should ensure that their premises and products comply with the Food Act 1983 as well as relevant regulations,” he said when contacted by Bernama, adding that the inspection involves 151 of its enforcement officers.

Meanwhile, Sha’ari said the Keluarga Malaysia Healthy booth under the department is promoting various health-related activities such as organ donation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), dental screening, food safety and quality and services under the smoking cessation clinic.

A check by Bernama found that visitors thronged the booth to obtain more healthcare information.

The Selangor AKM tour which opened its doors to visitors today is being held at the Shah Alam Stadium with about 100 booths featuring small and medium-sized enterprises.

Themed ‘Malaysian Family Entrepreneurs Driving the National Economy’, the eighth edition of the AKM tour is hosted by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 (Bernama) — This year’s federal development expenditure (DE) performance until Aug 15 recorded an increase to 50.35 per cent compared to 26.4 percent on April 15, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

The prime minister said this was informed in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) Highest Monitoring Committee meeting which he chaired today, which was also attended by senior ministers and heads of department and agencies.

“All ministries are urged to raise their expenditure performance. Unused allocations must be returned to the Finance Ministry (MoF) to be rechanneled to ministries in need,” he said in a statement here today.

The prime minister said the 12MP Highest Monitoring Committee and the National Development Project Implementation Facilitation Committee (JP4N) will continue to look into current issues and challenges to expedite the implementation of development projects during the 12MP period for the benefit of Keluarga Malaysia (the Malaysian Family).

In addition, Ismail Sabri said the meeting today had also agreed that the Prime Minister’s Department’s Economic Planning Unit (EPU) prepare a 12MP mid-term review to examine and revise existing policies and targets so that targeted development goals can be achieved, with the process to run for a year from September this year.

In line with the target of achieving the status of an inclusive and sustainable high-income nation in 2025, Ismail Sabri said the meeting agreed to closely and continuously monitor key performance indicators.

He said this includes ensuring the implementation of interventions that are necessary due to uncertainties in the global economy, geopolitical conflicts that affect inflation rates as well as slow changes in the country’s economic structure.

Besides this, Ismail Sabri said Malaysia had become an ageing nation in 2021 and is expected to become an aged nation in 2044.

He said an ageing nation is defined as having a minimum seven per cent of its population aged 65 and older while an aged nation has 14 percent of its total population aged 65 and above.

As such, Ismail Sabri said the meeting also agreed with the national agenda’s mainstream mechanism of an ageing nation and the preparation of a blueprint of an Ageing Nation Agenda which will be coordinated by the EPU.

He said the government is also committed to achieving the zero hardcore poverty goal by the end of 2025 through the Keluarga Malaysia hardcore poverty eradication programme (BMTKM), in which its first phase kicked off in April involving 80 localities and about 5,000 household heads.

The prime minister said BMTKM will use a new integrated approach that is more holistic and focused on income generation activities among the hardcore poor in a sustainable manner.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 (Bernama) — The Keluarga Malaysia Cheap Sales (JMKM) programme, which commenced today and offers essential items at 10 to 20 per cent cheaper, has received an encouraging response from consumers who do not want to miss the opportunity to purchase the items.

In fact, simultaneous sales for 18 weeks in 639 state constituencies nationwide and 13 parliamentary constituencies in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, are also seen not only to benefit consumers, but also to help increase the income of traders, who are affected by the economic slowdown.

In TERENGGANU, auto parts salesman Azlan Yusof said that the programme was timely, to enable the people, especially the B40 group, to get food items at a cheaper price, as the economic situation has been very challenging.

“Today, I buy chicken at only RM6.50 per kilogramme compared with RM9 per kg previously. Even since the previous programme (Malaysian Family Sales), whenever I knew there was such a programme held, I would go there because I don’t want to miss the opportunity to buy goods at a much cheaper price,” said the father of three to Bernama today.

Meanwhile, Mini 9 Mart manager, Hamizah Mohamad, said that in addition to buying food items and basic necessities listed in the programme, customers will also buy other items at the store.

“Hence, indirectly, the sales at my shop also increased,” said Hamizah who was excited to receive more customers since opening the business premises in Kuala Terengganu at 8 am today.

In SELANGOR, a check by Bernama at the JMKM, held in conjunction with the Keluarga Malaysia Aspirations Tour (AKM) at the Shah Alam Stadium grounds, found that among the most popular items were standard chicken sold for as low as RM10 per bird, frozen chicken (RM5 per bird), one kilogramme of flour (RM3.20), cooking oil 5kg bottle (RM30.50) and 5kg rice (RM12).

A visitor, Siti Aishah Ismail, 42, a housewife, described the purchase as worthwhile because it was much cheaper than the market.

“Besides, the price of the chicken outside is RM9.40 per kilogramme; here we can get as low as RM10 per bird. Buying other necessities is also worth it as they are cheap,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP), in a statement, announced that JMKM is implemented at least twice a month in each constituency, involving an allocation of RM80 million.

“Each constituency will be given an equal distribution of RM25,000 per month for each JMKM implementation, for the period from Aug 15 to Dec 31, 2022.

“This is to provide discounted prices for selected essential items such as chicken, fish and seafood, chicken eggs, sugar, cooking oil, wheat flour, rice, vegetables and fruits,” read the statement.

KPDNHEP said in addition to encouraging premises to give discounts of up to 20 per cent compared with local market prices, all Malaysian Family members are also called upon to take advantage of the cheap prices offered by visiting JMKM at nearby locations.

The public can get the latest information on the implementation of JMKM in selected locations through the official Facebook page of the Jualan Murah Keluarga Malaysia or KPDNHEP and also at the states’ KPDNHEP involved.

Recently, the chairman of the Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the JMKM programme, which commenced today, aimed to give people access to get cheaper goods every week.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUANTAN, Aug 19 (Bernama) — The Fisheries Department has launched a Plastic-Free Seas Campaign to ensure that the country’s waters are free from the kinds of pollution capable of affecting the quantity and quality of fishermen’s catch.

Its director-general Mohd Sufian Sulaiman said the effort is carried out in collaboration with several agencies, including the Department of Environment, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and fishermen associations.

“We need to save marine life in our country’s waters from ingesting plastic thrown into the sea because these animals not only eat large plastic items but also microplastic waste.

“When microplastics are digested by marine life, humans who consume them will most likely suffer adverse effects to their health in the long-term,” he said at a press conference after launching the campaign at Pantai Sepat here today.

As part of the campaign, more than 600 participants from various agencies will hold activities, including beach clean-ups, as well as organise a ‘Plastic-Free Seas’ forum to raise awareness about the hazards of plastic to marine life.

Mohd Sufian said they will also record the amount and weight of plastics collected through a nationwide campaign so that accurate data related to marine ecosystem conservation efforts can be known.

According to him, the data can be used as a reference to find a more effective approach to overcome marine pollution related to plastic dumping in the future.

“At the moment, we have almost 20,000 fishermen across the country who can help us collect plastic litter thrown into the country’s waters.

“We will also make sure that this fishing community itself does not throw or leave plastic litter in the sea, including nets and ropes used when catching fish because this also disturbs the ecosystem,” he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

PORT DICKSON, Aug 19 (Bernama) — The public has been advised that vinegar could be used as early treatment for a jellyfish sting.

Department of Fisheries Malaysia (DOF), deputy director-general (Management), Wan Muhammad Aznan Abdullah said having that knowledge could help avoid any untoward incidents.

He said the effects of a sting by jellyfish could be minimised if fast action was taken to reduce the effects of the poison by applying vinegar, which is a traditional way to prevent the situation from getting worse.

“Traditionally, after being stung by a jellyfish, it is necessary to apply vinegar before seeking further treatment at a clinic to prevent the effects of the marine life’s poison from getting worse.

“It is necessary to immediately apply vinegar, treat it immediately… that’s why in national parks vinegar is provided on the jetties … if we pour vinegar on the wound, it can reduce the effects of the jellyfish’s sting,” he told reporters after officiating the Artificial Cuboid Coral Reef Anchoring (Conservation) here today.

The media had reported that a five-year-old French boy reportedly died as a result of being stung by a jellyfish while bathing at Teluk Nipah beach on Pangkor Island, Perak.

Meanwhile, Negri Sembilan Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Action Committee chairman Datuk Bakri Sawir said since 2008 until today, the federal government had spent RM1.45 million to build artificial recreational and conservation reefs along the waters of Port Dickson.

He said it costs RM300,000 to build and anchor nine units of artificial cuboid coral reefs (conservation).

He also said his department and the Negeri Sembilan Fisheries Department are committed to ensuring the sustainability of biodiversity is preserved and able to give satisfaction to divers to enjoy the beauty of the seabed in the waters of Port Dickson.

“Awareness programmes like this are important to ensure people appreciate and care for the marine ecosystem by reducing the use of plastic, and don’t throw rubbish into the sea that is likely to affect the lives of fish and other marine life,” he added.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

SHAH ALAM, Aug 19 (Bernama) — Two siblings from Korea braved a packed audience and managed to battle their way to the front, just to get a glimpse of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob who attended the Selangor Malaysian Family Aspiration Tour.

Ismail Sabri who realised the struggle of the two siblings – Ayman Inwoo Jeon, 10, and his sister Minna Jeon, 7, took time off to chat with the kids who came with their mother Maryam Lee Eun Young.

The Prime Minister who asked the kids if they could speak Bahasa Malaysia was delighted when Ayman nodded his head in a motion of agreement.

“Where is your school?,” asked Ismail Sabri and Ayman said he attends tuition.

Ayman when met by Bernama after the programme said he and his sister were thrilled and proud to have met the Prime Minister and take pictures with him, although they had to battle their way through the crowd to have an opportunity to meet the PM.

“I saw a group of photographers in action. I was excited and wanted to go to the front to see what was happening. I saw the Prime Minister (in white shirt) taking pictures, so I too wanted to take some pictures with him when my mother said the person was the Prime Minister.

“I was pleasantly schocked when the Prime Minister himself offered to take a picture with us although he was about to leave the function,” said Ayman in Bahasa Malaysia.

Earlier about 1,000 people attended the programme which was also attended by Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali.

During the programme, Ismail Sabri also launched COOP, a brand introduced by the government through which initiative, five essential items would be sold at prices that are cheaper than market price, namely sugar, cooking oil, flour, rice and frozen chicken.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency