Umno’s Jamawi Jaafar says it is time to the government took the initiative to create bumiputera IT and telecommunications entrepreneurs in a more serious manner. ― File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 ― The government has been urged to create an information technology (IT) and digital industry hub for bumiputera in order to reduce dependency and check monopoly of certain parties in the telecommunications products business.

Umno Youth information chief Jamawi Jaafar said it was about time the government took the initiative to create bumiputera IT and telecommunications entrepreneurs in a more serious manner, in line with the country's aspirations to become a developed nation by 2020.

He said bumiputera should be able to place themselves on par with other races in the industry, but unfortunately, they only remained as buyers, and not traders.

“To be honest, with the presence of various government agencies in charge of bumiputera interests, such as MARA (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) and UDA (UDA Holdings Berhad), by right many Bumiputera entrepreneurs should have been produced in this field,” he said in a statement today.

He said extensive publicity on an ongoing basis should be given to the hub, if it were to be formed ― to ensure that it did not “die-off” or merely become a “false start”. ― Bernama