Entrepreneurial Developoment Programmes: The Malaysian Experience

Abstract

Dr. Chee Peng Lim is an associate professor in the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Like many other developing countries Malaysia is trying to encourage a larger number of indigenous entrepreneurs to participate more actively in its economy. In line with this objective the government has spent more than US $100 million over the last ten years to create indigenous entrepreneurs on a massive scale. The major implementation agencies in the entrepreneurial development programmes in Malaysia are MARA, NPC, and MEDEC. These agencies have designed three levels of training programmes for indigenous entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, the programmes have not been very successful in creating new entrepreneurs. The various possible reasons for this are discussed in this paper and suggestions made for improving existing programmes.