MP SPEAKS | In search of Malay entrepreneurs

MP SPEAKS | Amirul was my research assistant until he left to venture into a small business on his own. I met him last week and he showed me some beautiful pictures of fighting fish, which he breeds and sells. I was very impressed.

He told me he has applied for a government grant and was still waiting for a response. But he is not going to wait.

He and six other friends each came up with a thousand ringgit and started a home-based tropical ornamental fish farm. The quantity of fish he breeds is still very small and when there are more fish, he will then move to a bigger place, Amirul humbly told me.

The world ornamental fish trade is a multi-billion dollar business and Malaysia is among the top exporters of tropical ornamental fish, with an annual export value close to RM400 million. The prospect for expansion of the industry is good, since Malaysia’s share of the global market is less than 10 percent.

There must be thousands of micro fish farms in the country operated by individuals like Amirul. However, due to the lack of capital and technology, only a few hundred have made it to the export market...