USM PENANG, 3 April 2023 – Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) through its Division of Industry and Community Network (BJIM) has been commissioned by the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (TERAJU) to take charge of the Sustainable Marketing for Community (SMART Community) Programme to promote and market products produced by the Sarawak entrepreneurs in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan.

This effort would benefit more than 233 Bumiputera B40 entrepreneurs in Sarawak.

The SMART Community Programme is an initiative to assist and empower rural communities involved in the manufacturing of local products via the transfer of knowledge, technology, research and improvements in an inclusive manner.

According to the Head of the SMART Community Programme, Syed Yusof Syed Kechik, Sarawak has a variety of premium products with a huge potential to be introduced to the world.

“Food products from Sarawak such as ‘madu kelulut’ (honey from the stingless bee), pepper, ‘gula apong’ (natural sweet substance extracted from Nipah palm trees that are abundant in Sarawak) and Sarawak ‘laksa’ paste possess their own unique, original qualities that could allow them to penetrate and fulfil global market demands.

“Thus, we are offering various incentives and support to the entrepreneurs in Sarawak to be more proactive in programmes to promote their local products to broader markets,” he said.

Furthermore, he said that the Smart Community Programme has also moved to the next phase when USM and its collaborative partner that is based in Japan, Asia Bridge International (ABI) Co. Ltd. inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) at MATRADE, Tokyo recently.

The MoA was also signed with a few ‘One Stop Centres’ such SPL Food Industries Sdn. Bhd.; Bayu Gagah (M) Marketing Sdn. Bhd.; and Sophia Taha Holdings Sdn. Bhd.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Director of MATRADE as the Trade Commissioner, Niqman Rafaee M. Sahar; Director, TERAJU Chief Executive Officer’s Office, Samsulkamar bin Mohamad Ali; and TERAJU Sarawak Region Programme Head, Zarifhadi bin Bujang.

The strategic collaboration which utilises the quadruple helix format started in 2020 under the ‘DPUB (Dana Pembangunan Usahawan Bumiputera) Sarawak’ fund that was aimed at strengthening the economy and the socioeconomic standing of the ‘Bumiputera’ B40 community in Sarawak.

Elaborating on the strategic partnership, Syed Yusof said, ABI has been appointed as a collaborative partner in Japan to facilitate the marketing of products from Sarawak there.

“Selection of the collaborative partner was made as it was deemed suitable, with the context and objective to be achieved through the SMART Community Programme, as ABI not only has a network of physical stores in Nagoya and Tokyo, but also has an online business operation via smart applications such as Halal2Go, Ichiba, Yahoo.Japan, Amazon.com, Mercari and others,” he said.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Photo: BJIM USM