Teraju to focus on property ownership among Bumiputeras

KUALA LUMPUR: The Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (TERAJU) which has disbursed RM46.5 billion worth of business opportunities, financing and human capital development for bumiputera companies, plans to focus on the property segment moving forward from its entrepreneurship initiatives.
"The amount of RM46.5 billion is a big number if taken into account that TERAJU has been set up three-and-a-half-years ago under the Government-Linked Companies (GLC)," its CEO Husni Salleh (pix) told reporters at a briefing on the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Report Card here yesterday.
"However, we still feel there are more spaces that we need to improve, especially to increase the property ownership among the bumiputeras," he said.
He noted that TERAJU is now collaborating with various government agencies and private firms such as Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) and Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Bhd (PUNB) to confront the issue of low property ownership among bumiputeras.
He said it will also look into human capital development for bumiputeras to increase skill-based education, such as vocational schools and training with international certificates.
Husni said the RM46.5 billion includes a RM6.5 billion allocation for the Facilitation Fund, RM1.64 billion for the Teras Fund at SME Bank, RHB Islamic and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance (MIDF), RM100 million for Skim Usahawan Permulaan Bumiputera (SUPERB) financing, RM580 million for Bumiputera Halal Development Fund, RM475 million for Bumiputera Expansion Fund (BEF) and RM75 million for 'Sweat Equity' programme with Mara.
He said to date, eight bumiputera companies have been listed on Bursa Malaysia, under Teraju's Skim Jejak Jaya Bumiputra (SJJB), with a total market capitalisation worth RM5.4 billion in June 2014, compared with RM1.38 billion when the companies were listed on the stock exchange.
"Moving forward, we will try to increase the overall market capitalisation of bumiputera-controlled public listed companies (PLCs) to between RM7 billion and RM10 billion," he added.
The SJJB, which was under the purview of the Finance Ministry, was inspired in 2007 to elevate bumiputera entrepreneur capabilities in the economic scenario, particularly in the area of equity ownership.