Standard Chartered-MaGIC partnership to amplify social entrepreneurship landscape in Malaysia

  • SEtia is set to enhance social entrepreneurs’ capacity building with coaching, mentoring
  • Tie-up will create compelling transformation, innovation and acceleration opportunities

(From Left) Jennifer Kang, Country Head of Corporate Affairs and Brand and Marketing, Standard Chartered, Abrar A. Anwar, Managing Director and CEO of Standard Chartered, Redzuan Mohd Yusoff, Minister of Entrepreneur Development, Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO, MaGIC and Yusnee Rahmad, Director, ASEAN Centre of Entrepreneurship, MaGIC.

Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd (Standard Chartered) and Malaysian Global Innovation & Creative Center (MaGIC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that aims to amplify the capacities of local social entrepreneurs through a programme called SEtia. Social Entrepreneurs - Transformation, Innovation & Acceleration, is a capacity building initiative with a customised syllabus designed to strengthen the development of social entrepreneurs through business coaching and mentoring support on business modelling, financial management, innovative marketing strategies, government policies and more.

Redzuan Mohd Yusoff, Minister of Entrepreneur Development, witnessed the MoU signing between Abrar A. Anwar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia and Dzuleira Abu Bakar, Chief Executive Officer, MaGIC. Under the MoU, Standard Chartered will contribute US$47,830 (RM200,000) to cover the cost of approximately 50 social entrepreneurs participating in SEtia.

“Social enterprises are one of the strongest ways to address our nation’s socio-economic disparities and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said Redzuan, which is why the Malaysian government will be giving special emphasis to them in 2020.

“The government will help create positive social impact for the nation and this is being made visible this year especially through the launch of The Social Enterprise Accreditation Guidelines, the social enterprise application guide for approval under subsection 44 (11c) income tax act 1967 released by the Ministry of Finance and the allocation of US$2.4 million (RM10 million) to aid in the development of social enterprises announced in Malaysia’s Budget 2020,” he adds.

I am particularly happy to see that corporations such as Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia also doing their part through Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibility (CER) efforts.” Abrar pointed out that the MoU marked the second phase of a successful collaboration between the bank and MaGIC since 2017, in supporting and developing entrepreneurs which is in line with the strategic goals of the bank.

“Standard Chartered has a long history of contributing to social and economic development and supporting communities in the countries where we operate. Our new global initiative, Futuremakers tackles inequality and promotes greater economic inclusion. We believe that bringing together the domain expertise of Standard Chartered and the enabler role of MaGIC within the Malaysian entrepreneurship ecosystem will create compelling transformation, innovation and acceleration opportunities for budding entrepreneurs,” added Abrar.

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, Chief Executive Officer of MaGIC expressed excitement over the collaboration and Standard Chartered’s commitment in providing social entrepreneurs with a platform to refine their impact solutions through SEtia.

“This programme will embed 50 selected social entrepreneurs with an impact-driven mindset fuelled by creativity and innovation to catapult the growth of their businesses for a larger social impact on all strata of society. This will also help ensure inclusive economic growth for Malaysia while creating a positive dent within the nation’s social entrepreneurship sphere,” she said.

SEtia is a rigorous 4-week training programme that consists of entrepreneurship development modules as well as exposure to creative and innovative business strategies to maximise social impact and profit, active discussions and immersive visits to existing social enterprises. The programme will also provide opportunity for the social entrepreneurs involved to meet with successful and seasoned entrepreneurs and SMEs, who will share fresh perspectives, advice and tips.

Application for SEtia will open from 13 Jan 2020 till 28 Feb 2020. For further information and to submit an application, visit https://mymagic.my/setia

The MoU signing was in conjunction with the SME Conference 2019 organised by the British-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (BMCC) and Standard Chartered.

 
 
Keyword(s) :
 
Author Name :
 
Download Digerati50 2020-2021 PDF

Digerati50 2020-2021

Get and download a digital copy of Digerati50 2020-2021