KUALA LUMPUR: Encouraging all street vendors to operate from caravans or food trucks by 2020 are among the plans drawn up by the Federal Territories Ministry in an effort to upgrade the status of the traders involved, said Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.
He said the business plan to be implemented through Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) was seen to be more efficient, clean and able to provide easy mobility.
“So far, DBKL has identified 50 hawkers who are interested in upgrading their business to this caravan concept and we will provide each of them a grant of RM10,000 to help them expand their businesses,” he said in reply to Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (Independent-Bandar Tun Razak) in the Dewan Rakyat here today.
Khalid had wanted to know the statistics of Malaysian citizen hawkers operating without license in the city and the action plans to upgrade the facilities for them, including infrastructure, tools and equipment, financial assistance, training, business permits and other licenses.
Tengku Adnan, who is also the MP for Putrajaya said the DBKL had so far identified 3,000 unlicensed traders around Kuala Lumpur and feasibiliy studies were being carried out on location suitability before permits could be given out.
Replying to a supplementary question from Normala Abdul Samad (BN-Pasir Gudang) on licenses “sold” to foreigners, Tengku Adnan reaffirmed that traders caught selling, renting or leasing their licenses to foreigners would have their licenses revoked.
“I have issued a directive that the hawker licenses issued are strictly meant for the locals to operate their business.
“We have monitored several places in Petaling Street, Jalan Alor and wholesale markets and found that this is a common problem, but we have warned them that their licenses would be revoked if they are caught again,” he said. --Bernama