KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry (KUSKOP) is offering start-up grants of up to RM30,000 to new cooperatives to encourage youth participation in the cooperative movement, including in rural areas.
Its deputy minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin said the ministry also offered collateral-free loans of up to RM200,000 through the Co-operative Societies Commission of Malaysia (SKM), while fisheries- and agriculture-based cooperatives are eligible for financing of up to RM600,000 at a profit rate of three per cent on a reducing balance basis.
“I support the proposal to establish a cooperative for young people from fishing families in Kuala Kedah. I will ask the Kedah SKM director to meet with them to discuss how the cooperative can be set up,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Mohamad was responding to Kuala Kedah MP Ahmad Fakhruddin Fakhrurrazi's supplementary query on whether KUSKOP will introduce a support package for youth cooperatives, covering financing, management advice, and market access, with pilot projects for young people from fishing and rice-farming families in Kuala Kedah.
Meanwhile, 235 cooperatives targeting young people were registered in Kedah as of the end of 2025, with 157,820 members, assets worth RM63.27 million and a turnover of RM47.18 million.
He added that Kedah SKM and the Cooperative Institute of Malaysia (IKMa) were implementing awareness programmes, training, and leadership development to attract more young people to the cooperative movement and encourage them to serve on cooperative boards.
At the national level, 3,071 cooperatives targeting young people were registered nationwide as of December 31, 2025, with 2.43 million members, assets worth RM1.3 billion and a turnover of RM893 million.
