KUALA LUMPUR: The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry (Kuskop) has announced a waiver of social enterprise rating fees to encourage more companies and organisations to obtain recognition as social enterprises in Malaysia.
Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Steven Sim (pic) said the exemption covered the RM300 Accredited Social Enterprise rating fee and the RM50 Basic Social Enterprise rating fee, which would be fully borne by the National Entrepreneurship Institute from Aug 1 to Sept 17 in conjunction with National Month and Malaysia Day.
“The aim is to encourage more companies to register as social enterprises,” he told reporters after opening the Malaysia Social Enterprise Ecosystem Convention here yesterday.
Sim said that to date, 649 social enterprises have received Kuskop ratings, comprising 328 Aspiring Social Enterprises, 253 Basic Social Enterprises and 68 Accredited Social Enterprises.
He said the figure remained well below the target set under the Malaysia Social Entrepreneurship Blueprint 2030, which aimed to reach 5,000 social enterprises by 2025, underscoring the need to further strengthen the sector’s ecosystem.
He said there is a possibility that companies, corporations and non-governmental organisations are already carrying out social impact activities but have yet to apply for ratings due to a lack of awareness and cost factors.
“There may already be businesses and corporations undertaking social impact activities but because of lack of awareness, costs and other factors, they have not come forward to register,” he said.
According to Sim, registered social enterprises are also eligible for tax exemption incentives until Dec 31, 2027.
The ministry had also allocated a dedicated fund of nearly RM20mil to help social enterprises strengthen their business capacity and expand their operations.
He said the facilities available included the Social Enterprise Financing Scheme by SME Bank, which offered financing of up to RM500,000 at rates as low as 3%, as well as the Cooperative Promotion as Social Enterprise Programme (Serasi) by the Malaysian Co-operative Societies Commission.
Meanwhile, Sim said Kuskop had successfully reduced the processing period for social enterprise rating applications from 90 days to 30 days through improvements to the ministry’s processes.
He said the ministry had also introduced the Malaysia Social Impact Procurement Initiative (Prisma) to encourage more companies and government agencies to adopt procurement practices that took into account their impact on society and the environment.
Sim said the social enterprise sector is still relatively new in terms of institutional development in Malaysia.
