Targeting 1 parliamentary constituency 1 RisSMart by 2020: Ismail Sabri

BERA: The Rural and Regional Development Ministry targets the establishment of one Risda Smallholders Mart (RisSMart) for one parliamentary constituency by 2020.

Its minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (pix) said to date, there were already six RisSmarts operating in Kelantan, Selangor, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Pahang, with seven more planned for next year.

"We will make our target of 1 Parliamentary Constituency 1 RisSMart as a Key Performance Indicator of the ministry. If we want to place it just under Risda, it will require a big capital.

"Thus, we will instruct the other agencies under this ministry to collaborate with Risda such as through the Blue Ocean Strategy to together realise the objective. With this (cooperation), I believe the target of 1 Parliamentary Constituency 1 RisSMart can be achieved."

Ismail Sabri said this after officially opening the 6th RisSMart in Bera, Kerayong, here, today involving 17 entrepreneurs in various sectors such as food, handicraft and hair dressing.
Also present were Risda chairman Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, its director-general Mohd Najib A.Samad and Pahang Risda director Wan Ahmad Shabri Zainuddin Wan Mohamad.

Ismail Sabri said the existence of RisSMarts would help entrepreneurs market their products more systematically like the hypermarkets which were complete which their standard packaging.

"We know that products like foodstuff produced by these entrepreneurs are good but lack marketing opportunities. So what they could only do is to sell their products at the night markets, day markets or pasar tani (farmers' markets).

"Hence, we have established RisSMart to assist them in various aspects and if they don't have enough capital, we will help them obtain loans to develop their products," he added.

The minister said business opportunities at the RisSMart were also open to those not under Risda (Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority), as long as their products or services were good enough to be promoted to help improve the economy of the rural folk.

According to the ministry's records, Risda had so far developed 11,740 entrepreneurs with 1,423 of them in Pahang, and the targeted number by 2020 is 20,000.

"We want to produce more entrepreneurs in the rural areas to raise incomes and open more job opportunities, so that rural youths would no longer need to migrate to the towns and cities for work," said Ismail Sabri. — Bernama