HLB extends social enterprise SURI assistance to help them produce PPE
KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) has extended its assistance to SURI lifestyle (SURI), a denim upcycling social enterprise with social procurement to produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) suits for medical frontliners at Klang hospital.
SURI is an alumna of HLB Jumpstart, the bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) platform that aims to help Malaysian social enterprises build long term businesses by extending and sharing financial knowledge, tools and digitisation of operations, branding and marketing and others.
Group managing director and chief executive officer Domenic Fuda said as times are tough for everyone during this health crisis, both businesses and individuals are forced to adapt to the situation or risk putting up the shutters.
“Social enterprises like SURI, whose core business model revolves around the social mission of giving back to the community and generating income opportunities for the bottom 40 per cent (B40) income groups are especially suffering during these times as social procurement from corporate companies have come to a halt.
“As a community bank, we see helping SURI with their social procurement by subsidising their labour costs as a great opportunity to strengthen communities in-need during these unprecedented times,” he said in a statement.
HLB said it would be subsidising labour costs to enable SURI to continue generating a sustainable income for their beneficiaries, who are underprivileged and single mothers so that they can weather the pandemic.
The bank noted, like many small businesses and social enterprises, SURI has also been severely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis.
“Ever since the implementation of the MCO, SURI has not received any new orders for its denim products and this has affected the income stream of the single mothers.
“In order to continue providing a sustainable livelihood for them, SURI adapted to the situation by leveraging on their sewing skills to produce PPE suits for medical frontliners,” it said. — Bernama
THE Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) extended previous day’s gains to close US$50 higher at US$15,000 per tonne yesterday, driven by increasing demand for the commodity, a dealer said.
The market’s performance was in tandem with the upswing in the tin price on the London Metal Exchange (LME), which increased by US$275 to US$15,235 per tonne Tuesday night.
“The local tin price rebounded as more buyers come into the market due to the recent lower price, as well as inline with the rebound on the LME tin market,” the dealer told Bernama.
Turnover on the KLTM rose to 21 tonnes from Monday’s 20 tonnes, with participation coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, European countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh.