Grants, Soft Loans ............

It was published in The Borneo Post, the July 15th edition.

I could have swear I heard this comment before. Our Dayak entrepreneurs not taking advantage of these "grants, soft loans" offered by 8 (eight)sources like Miti, MPC, Mida, Matrade, Ksen, SME Bank, MIDF & Smidec.

MFSB applied for Smidec "Start-Up" facility about 7 months ago. Their officers came around 3-4 months ago to our business premise asking various questions pertaining to our Application.

And up till today, we have NO positive answers from this "source" except "masih dalam proses."

And MFSB is NOT asking for a grant, neither a soft loan!

And MFSB has already purchased (most of) its Office equipments, so what do we need from Smidec after having bought our Office equipments we so badly needed?

I am sure everyone knows TIME is very important to any business persons. We can't wait and Rental must be paid come month end, besides other utility bills.

DCCI and the likes are calling on Dayak (would be) businessmen to attend their "kursus" and where do they go from here?

Everyone with the right contacts can call for any "kursus" regarding this, but if there is NO results at the end or the privilege(s) given to a few selected persons, I don't see where we will benefit from these "sources" at the end?

As a small time car dealer, we (Iban/Dayak combination/husband & wife) are in an industry that is very challenging and controlled mostly by our Chinese brothers.

Personally, I don't see much future for us IF we were to stand toe to toe with the others from the same industry. Not trying to be negative in thoughts, but surely the truth will prevail in the end.

By joining some organisations with politicians heading it, could make it even more "worrisome" for us and if this is the current trend to be eligible for that grants and soft loans, we are definitely left behind by this flock!

But still we have to wage our little "war" and carve out a living and be a provider for our children's future.

At the moment, we are at the mercy of our "bigger" brothers, not that we are lagging behind them but because we lack funds. We need that injection of funds to be able to compete in the open market.

To those with intention to venture into this business, better think again. I'm not trying to discourage any individuals but if you have never been in this industry, better stay out of it. The funds needed to open and run this business could well run into ten of thousands of Ringgit and you're probably asking yourself "why do Stephen Dass AKA Merekah Fajar wants to do it, if it is not worth doing?" My answer is this folks, we have been in this industry for quite sometime, through the good and bad times we been through it all! You need to have the right attitude to weather the storm, and this business is not making each and every month, there is always that risk to think about.

I won't write much on that in here, if you really want to share my experience, be
open-minded and not let a dark cloud hanging over your very thought.

So folks, our direction from now on after this "offer" ended?

Life still goes on .... the world is in recession, and it is not helping most of us in this industry,but always All Glory to GOD, He has not dis-appointed us all the while.

Not even today!

Cheerio,

SDass AKA Merekah Fajar