KUALA LUMPUR, April 29\u00a0 –\u00a0The government has subsidised about 30 per cent of\u00a0salary payments for small and medium\u00a0entrepreneurs (SMEs) during the Movement Control Order (MCO) to avoid retrenchment and reduce the number of people retrenched.<\/p>\n
Neil Foo, the Malaysian representative of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Small and Medium\u00a0Enterprise\u00a0Forum (APEC SME Forum),\u00a0said many SMEs had received the aid under the government\u2019s\u00a0Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package\u00a0(PRIHATIN) billion which was unveiled recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cApart from wage subsidies\u00a0under\u00a0the PRIHATIN package, several measures such as the\u00a0six-month deferment in car loan and housing loan repayments have\u00a0given some relief to the SMEs,\u201d he said at a special web conference organised by China-based World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF) today.<\/p>\n
An\u00a0additional stimulus package (known as PRIHATIN Plus) worth\u00a0RM10 billion\u00a0to assist SMEs tide over\u00a0COVID-19 was announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on April 6 on top of the RM250 billion PRIHATIN package introduced on March 27.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Foo said\u00a0about 70 per cent of SMEs in Malaysia operate their businesses with less than three months cash flows<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the MCO ends (on May 12, as scheduled), they will need another month to gear up in order to sustain their businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However, with the assistance provided by the government under\u00a0the PRIHATIN\u00a0package, Foo was optimistic that Malaysia\u2019s economic activities\u00a0would pick up, particularly in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen the government gives out money to the people, they will start spending. And when they spend, the economy will improve and this will help business operators,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said although Malaysia has managed to\u00a0control the spread of COVID-19, things will not be the same post COVID-19.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Lee, who is also Gopeng Member of Parliament, said the biggest challenge was still practising social distancing, and how to ensure that the economic, sport, education and other activities could run smoothly, while the people adapting to this \u201cnew culture\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I believe Malaysians will do all they can to ensure sustainable economic development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
– BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n PHOTO CREDIT FREEPIK<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KUALA LUMPUR, April 29\u00a0 –\u00a0The government has subsidised about 30 per cent of\u00a0salary payments for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,7574,17],"tags":[7563],"class_list":["post-3701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-covid19","category-economy","tag-prihatin"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/red-colored-pencil-calculator-financial-report_23-2147919160.jpg",626,417,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Business<\/a> COVID19<\/a> Economy<\/a>","tag_info":"Economy","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3701"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3705,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions\/3705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}