'Insane' to claim government's neglecting Indian community's economy - Ramanan

KUALA LUMPUR - Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Datuk Seri R. Ramanan has described those making false accusations that the MADANI government is neglecting the Indian community's economy as 'insane'.

He said various forms of assistance related to empowering the Indian community's economy have been introduced by the government, with over 10,000 individuals receiving and benefiting from them.

Among the initiatives provided are the Skim Pembiayaan Pemerkasaan (SPUMI) Goes Big, Prosperity Empowerment and A New Normal (PENN), Bank Rakyat Indian Entrepreneur Financing-i (BRIEF-i), and the Business Accelerator Programme for Indian Small Business (I-BAP).

"There has been a very encouraging response to various programmes to assist the Indian community. However, there are still individuals and groups (in the opposition) claiming that the government is not helping the Indian community; they continue to question where the assistance for the Indian community is.

"There are two or three 'insane people' claiming that the PM (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) does not care about the Indian community, even though a lot of aid has been provided. If you want to criticise, do so rationally, not by fabricating false accusations,” he said after opening the 73rd Annual Delegates Conference of the Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MAICCI) for 2024 here today.

Ramanan said to further empower the Indian community's economy, the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives will introduce a new programme called Empowering Indian Entrepreneurs to provide training to entrepreneurs from the community.

He added that MAICCI will be the ministry's strategic partner in implementing the initiative, which will focus on providing training to participants in the fields of business, entrepreneurship and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. - BERNAMA