PRELIMINARY STUDY OF RURAL ENTREPRENERUSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN MALAYSIA

Rural entrepreneurship is acknowledged as an important component that contributes to the economic development of a country. In Malaysia, until recent much attention has been given by the government to ensure the success of the program. Nevertheless, the development of the program has not meeting the government plan. Therefore, this study aims to explore the rural entrepreneurship program in Johor. Specifically the objective of the study is to identify entrepreneurs’ understanding towards the program and the effectiveness of the programs. The data of the study was captured using structured questionnaires involving 32 rural entrepreneurs who had participated in the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development programs. The study revealed that level of understanding of the program was high. The mean score of the five measurements of understanding (promotion awareness, promotion content, suitability of the program, program content and program activities) was 4.4. In term of the effectiveness of the program, although overall mean score was at high level (3.7) two aspects; integration and coordination found to be less effective with the average score of 2.3 and 2.4 respectively. It can be concluded although the entrepreneurs highly understood about the program, the program need further improvement in term of integration and coordination. It is hoped that this study can provide some information that can be used by the respective ministry in enhancing the rural entrepreneurship development program in Malaysia