KUALA LUMPUR: The East Coast Economic Region Development Council(ECERDC) has teamed up with Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and Maybank Islamic Bhd to provide RM110 million in funding to east coast entrepreneurs

For a start, the ECER-Maybank Enterpreneurship Scheme will see ECERDC allocating RM10 million to help businesses top up up their interest or profit rate charges, while Maybank/Maybank Islamic will provide RM100 million for business financing.

The scheme, starting this month, is expected to benefit 2,000 micro and small-and-medium sized entrepreneurs(SMEs) in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Mersing by end-2015, a statement issued by ECER said.

According to ECERDC, the collaboration will continue under the 11th Malaysian Plan which commenced next year, and is expected to benefit some 6,000 entrepreneurs in ECER by 2020.

The exchange of collaboration documents, held in Parliament building today, was witnessed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is also the ECERDC chairman.

Representing ECERDC was its CEO Datuk Jebasingam Issace John while Maybank/Maybank Islamic was represented by its Group President and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias.

The scheme offers four types of financial assistance namely, SME Portfolio Guarantee-i, SME Property Business Financing-i, SME Micro Financing and Retail Micro Financing.

ECERDC said the Retail Micro Financing scheme is exclusively for women entrepreneurs, with a maximum loan amount of RM10,000. The other three schemes offer loan amounts varying from RM20,000 to RM500,000.

The regional development authority will top up the interest/profit rate charges applicable under the various loan schemes by up to 50%, thereby reducing the total repayment amounts payable by the entrepreneurs.

To apply for the loan, the businesses must be operating full time in the ECER and are registered with relevant authority. At least 51% equity must be held by Malaysian citizens.

On a separate matter, ECERDC also announced new investment commitments worth RM3.57 billion in ECER by 16 companies in the fourth quarter of 2014(4Q14), including eight companies that are beneficiaries of the government's Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera(Teraju) initiatives.

To date, 29 companies in ECER with a total investment value of RM646.5 million have benefitted from Teraju's Facilitation Fund worth RM84.1 million, while 65 companies have been identified as Syarikat Bumiputera Berprestasi Tinggi(Teras),ECERDC said.

The ECER has attracted investment worth RM72.26 billion since 2007, or 66% of ECER's investment target of RM110 billion by 2020. Also, a total of 73,281 jobs have been created.