SMEs: King’s call to focus on reviving economy timely

GEORGE TOWN: The advice by the King to all lawmakers to stop politicking and focus on reviving the economy is timely during this challenging time, says the SME Association of Malaysia.

President Datuk Michael Kang said politicians should work closely with industries in their constituencies to kick start the economy.

“If the economy recovers slowly, there will be a surge in unemployment, resulting in social problems.

The government needs to set up a business rescue scheme to determine which sectors were the hardest hit and which are the easiest to rescue.

“The government should allocate another RM50bil to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country,” said Kang.

Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia national secretary Sh Yeoh concurred with Kang’s view, saying that the government should introduce another stimulus package for SMEs.

“The RM10bil loan for the stimulus packages have been used up.

“It is not enough. If the size of an average loan is RM500,000, only 20,000 companies will benefit, which is about 10% of the 200,000 SMEs in the country,” he said.

Free Industrial Zone, Penang, Companies’ Association committee member Datuk heng huck Lee said the economy needed to recover as soon as possible.

“We need every effort and support from the government to help normalise the entire supply chain.

“Some form of financial relief programme or incentives would be of help,” he said.

heng added that many companies suffered losses for the past three months as they have yet to operate at optimum capacity.

“Our members paid full salary to their workers during the entire Movement Control Order period, and most of them are running with huge monthly financial losses,” he said.