PUTRAJAYA: Prevailing issues like the socioeconomic status of the Bumiputera community are those that need to be addressed under the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Plan (PuTERA35).
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the Bumiputera community is still focused on economic activities that have low added value which widens the income gap among ethnics.
Among the factors to issues plaguing the Bumiputera community is their inability to contribute meaningfully to the economy.
"The government's intention to materialise a Bumiputera Trade and Industry Community has yet to be fully achieved. Bumiputera business owners also have little ability to provide value and expand their businesses, which is why most of them are involved in micro, small and medium enterprises.
"Limited capital and support in the initial stages, especially for start ups, also contribute as a factor to these issues, which led to their dependency on grants and fundings from the government," said Rafizi in his opening address at the launch of PuTERA35 here.
He highlighted that as at 2022, Bumiputera companies only accounted for seven per cent or 62 of the total 945 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia.
The government has created various agencies responsible for supporting the Bumiputera development agenda.
In total, Rafizi said there are nine Bumiputera mandated agencies that were established specifically to empower the Bumiputera development agenda. This includes Majlis Amanah Rakyat, Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju), Yayasan Peneraju and Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) and the State Economic Corporation.
He also said agencies such as Permodalan Nasional Bhd, the Armed Forces Fund Board and Perbadanan Nasional Bhd play a role in supporting the agenda to lift the Bumiputera community.
However, Rafizi said several issues related to weak institutional governance as well as less effective delivery mechanisms have resulted in leakages and targets not being achieved.
"The implementation of programmes in silos that are not based on the original mandate and the absence of coordinated monitoring lead to duplication of roles and inefficiency in resource management.
"The issue of social protection also tramples Bumiputera. Based on data from 2022, the incidence of poverty is still high among Bumiputera compared to other races, of which a total of 415,400 or 7.9 per cent of Bumiputera households are living in poverty compared to 1.9 per cent among the Chinese and 5.4 per cent among the Indians.
"The incidence of poverty in three Bumiputera-majority states, namely Sabah, Sarawak and Kelantan, exceeds 10 per cent and 37.2 per cent of Orang Asli are poor, a string of limited socioeconomic opportunities," said the minister.
PuTERA35 has three pillars which are focused on enhancing the economy, strengthening governance and institutions and upholding social equality.
The plan is aimed at developing a dynamic and futuristic Bumiputera agenda that can overcome existing and upcoming challenges; set a more visible target to measure the participation, ownership and empowerment of Bumiputera economy and developing a more effective monitoring mechanism via the designation of responsible parties.