Introduction
Entrepreneurship is an idea
and action of starting of a new business either in smaller scale or larger
scale. Smaller scale enterprises or more recognized as SME[1]s
are focused to those local producers and suppliers who are producing more than 50%
of local product or services. Larger scale enterprises are also being mentioned
as SMEs but they are more focused to international market and product such as
DELL, NOKIA, and etc.
Entrepreneurship
is also related to the ability to take risk and develop a product or service to
a marketable value so that it can be a new business venture. It could on a
product or service which was already exist or creating a new opportunity.
Green Technology, from my
understanding is simple to be identify as Energy Saving and Renewable Energy.
Energy
saving is reflected to those initiative to save the energy produced by bulbs
(light), cars or air-conditioner (CFC, Monoxide), and etc. For an example,
energy saving bulbs are being produced to the market which reduce the usage of
the electric energy to 70%. This bulbs can produce energy as low as at 1Kw to
3Kw compared to halogen bulbs wich produces more than 50Kw energy.
Renewable
energy is reflected to energy which can be renewed on usage such as air, water,
coal, and wind. For an example, a new technology has been introduced to replace
current air-conditioning system which is called as ice-cube system. Those
ice-cubes will be used to produced cool air to be circulated in a building and
it is centralized on the day time. At night, the melted ice-cubes will be
frozen again to produce ice for the next day. This action will be continuous
and definitely it is 0% CFC. The water will be supplied through the underground
or roof top piping system from the main
pipe.
As a developing country in Asia, the
Government of Malaysia has implemented Green Technology in parallel with other
developed countries. World’s top ten countries implemented creativity and innovation
in green technology, and who also have stimulating environment for companies in
the industry, either public policy or private funding are Denmark, Israel,
Sweden, Finland, United States, Germany, Canada, South Korea, Ireland and
United Kingdom. As technological innovation facilitated incredible changes in
consumer lifestyles and productivity in the last 200 years, the development of
so-called green technologies will be essential to catalyze and facilitate the sustainability
revolution in the 21st century.
This research has been carried away
to introduce the new image of entrepreneurship in Malaysia which is into Green
Technology and to find the objectives of this new initiative. We will also
research about the challenges by installing this initiative among the young
entrepreneurs and the possible strategies to overcome those challenges.
The main objective of introducing
the new image is to support the Green Technology Policies have been published
by KeTTHA[2]
website, containing few elements. They are:
·
Minimize growth of energy consumption
·
Facilitate the growth of the Green Technology industry
and enhance its contribution to the national economy
·
Increase national capability for innovation in Green
Technology development and enhance Malaysia in Green Technology globally
·
Ensure sustainable development and conserve the
environment for future generations
·
Enhance public education and awareness on Green
Technology and encourage is widespread use
Problem
Statement
Lack of Government support and knowledge awareness
among entrepreneurs and enterprises to transform towards green technology.
Objective
After analyzing the problem
statement, I have done other researches on government initiatives to promote
green technology between within entrepreneurs, regardless of their business
scale and sector.
The main reason of this
research has been is to suggest a competent solution to the government and
other organizations such as NGO[3]s
in overcoming the problem discovered.
It is also to find the status of our country in
international level in practising green technology.
Current
issue
After some findings have been done, I found that the
government, even though has already implemented the policy in the year 2009,
there are no strict governance onto
the policy. The government did not emphasis the implementation nationwide but
focused only on certain areas. This can be clearly seen when the local
companies such as KFC Holdings are still using plastic bags for the package
whereas McDonald’s has been using paper bags for the package for the past 2
years ago.
I also found that there are vast difference of
application on Green Technologies between big companies and SMEs. This is
because of the government policy by giving incentives for those who are
implementing Green Technology. But the matter is how many entrepreneurs and
enterprises are aware of this incentive? There are only certain young
entrepreneurs are aware of this initiative. Big companies or to be called as
our country’s investors such as DELL, INTEL, Robert BOSCH, First Solar,
St.Jude’s and many more are already practising Green Technology by building a
Green Building, Energy Saving bulbs and products, Recycle, and many more.
They are given incentive to get refund of their yearly
TAX and also refund of electricity bill monthly for supporting Green
Technology. But the issue is, government has direct connection where these
companies get the updates on those incentives as soon as its announcement.
Unlike the smaller scale companies such as the stall owners and restaurant
owners, they are not being exposed to the Green Technology initiatives by the
government.
SSM[4]
or Companies Commission of Malaysia did not play their role in implementing
government objective in producing entrepreneurs towards green technology. As we
are concern, the procedures in order to register a new company, either
enterprise or private limited did not have any element of urging the new comers
to practice Green Technology. There is no any course of awareness program
conducted by them to the newly registered company owners on how they can
practice Green Technology in their business, regardless of what sector they are
involved in. It affects the awareness level for the company owners as they do
not know the importance of the practice and what the benefits of its
implementation are.
Future
issue
Taking actions to overcome the current issue is not
sufficient as it will lead to future problems if they are not being planned
properly. Every step that the government or agencies going to take over this
matter have to be tested and considerable for future possible issues so that
suggestions and prevention plans can be planned.
In this matter, I found that by government making a
public implementation of Green Technology into all scales of entrepreneurs will
create financial problem to the country. This is because, the statistic from
SSM shows that 4646722 companies has been registered in Malaysia for business
propose up to year 2011. This shows that, if each and every company implements
Green Technology in order to enjoy tax exemption and incentives, the government
will have to spend more than their budget of 1.5mil (2011 budget) for this
alone.
Other than, the latest demand of products will be on
Green Technology products and this will create a very huge opportunities for
the biodegradable product manufacturers to tap into the market. As all the
small companies started to purchase it, the demand will increase and once the
demand is at high level, the product suppliers will increase the price of the
product. Rather than having it on cheaper price, the business owners will have
to spend more money for maintaining their Green Technology effort, in order to
fulfil the government’s requirement to enjoy the incentive and benefits.
SSM also will be facing difficulties to emphasis on
Green Technology within the entrepreneurs. As shown earlier, there more than
4mil companies registered and to call them back for an awareness program is
just going to cost their time and finance in a huge scale. With the increase
number of registration day by day and calling for an awareness program will
create a hassle for the department to deliver their productivity.
Strategies
To overcome those problem stated above, I have done
some research and came across some ideas. Firstly, the government can introduce
a new audit system to the companies registered as Green Technology practitioners
so that it can be monitored easily. We are aware that the current world is very
famous with cheating on reports. To avoid those fault companies to enjoy the
benefits without implementing the technology, an audit system can be introduced
where a special force will be placed to monitor the report sent by the
companies. It is agreed that monitoring one by one takes ample of time,
therefore online report submission should be created so that the owners can do
it anytime, everywhere. These officers will filter the reports according to it
completeness towards the policy implementation and fulfil the requirements. A
certificate should be given to those successful companies and this certificate
will be used to redeem the incentives. Indirectly it will help to reduce the
financial issue for the government since not all the companies will entitled
for the incentives.
Next, the issue on biodegradable products can be
solved if the government again come into action. Government should give a new
scheme, which is green product purchase scheme where encourages the smaller
scale companies to purchase them at cheaper rate. The price has to be
controlled by the government so the suppliers did not increase the price above
affordability of purchasers. Small companies should be given an incentive of
free biodegradable product such plastic bags, paper bags, and utensils for them
to start up their business. This will reduce the business owners cost of
starting up a new business. Other than that, the government can also appoint
trusted suppliers to supply the products at the cheapest rate for the business
owners.
SSM need to take a new step in this initiative as
well. SSM has a very good platform to
create awarenees and I would like to suggest that SSM to hold a seminar on
green products usage to the newly registered business owners. Since they could
not target to the existing companies as the number is huge, they can start it
in small effort by conducting at least a half a day seminar to the new entrepreneurs.
They can do it in the morning before the entrepreneurs register their company
and they can give consultation on what type of product which supports green
technology can be used for their business.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I find that Entrepreneurs towards Green
Technology will help to create a country towards Green World by the support
from Government, SSM and the business owners themselves.
[1]
Small Medium Enterprise
[2]
Kementerian Tenaga, Teknologi
Hijau dan Air Malaysia
[3]
Non Government Organization
[4]
Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia
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