Social enterprise in Malaysia : the UMK experience

The term Entrepreneurship is still new to most Malaysian in the eighties and nineties, let alone the term Social Enterprise. The term social enterprise is always interchangeably confused with the term volunteerism, social work, welfare and entrepreneurship. All these terms have it's own meaning and definitions. As nomenclature to the term, it literally infers that two areas of expertise, namely social and entrepreneurship are combined to form social enterprise. In Malaysia, the term is widely used recently to explain the effort of some government agencies and non-governmental organisations in changing the economical status of the poor community. Many poor communities are subject to these social enterprise projects such technical skill training and micro financing scheme in assisting them to get out of the poverty bracket. Universities in Malaysia have also embarked on bridging the universities with the poor community such as carrying out community based poverty alleviation programmes. Universities Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) is no exception to these kinds of programmes.Through its strategic thrust, UMK has launched many programmes such as Social Enterprise for Economic Development (SEED), Regional Network in Poverty Eradication as well as actively involved in the Agropolitan Project of the East Coast Economic Region (ECER). This paper will highlight various debates on the definitions of Social Enterprise, current social enterprise like projects by goverment and non government agencies in Malaysia and the involvement of UMK in this area