KUCHING: The federal and state governments have been helping to alleviate the burden of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and movement control order (MCO).
This was pointed out by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan during a Sarawak SME Dialogue titled ‘Covid-19: Recovery and Empowerment of SME Businesses’ livestreamed on Agrobank’s Facebook page on Tuesday (June 30).
“SMEs contribute very much to the country’s development as well as employment opportunities. In Malaysia, including Sarawak, SMEs make up 98.5 percent of overall business,” he added.
Awang Tengah said that the federal government had implemented three economic stimulus packages, namely the two Prihatin packages and the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).
“Among the assistances provided is the wage subsidy, which has really helped. If this was not implemented, perhaps many of our SMEs would have had to close down,” he said.
The deputy chief minister believed that Sarawak was one of the first states to implement assistance packages to help the people with its three Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance packages (BKSS) involving a total allocation of RM2.55 billion.
“BKSS is assistance provided for the short- and medium-term. Assistance under BKSS encompasses aid in the form of cash and in-kind,” said Awang Tengah, who is also Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development as well as Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources.
Under BKSS, he said that businesspersons or SMEs were provided with assistances such as waiver on permit and licence fees for traders under the local authorities, deferment of loan repayments for six months and waiver of interest for Small and Medium Industries Loan Scheme (SPIKS) and Sarawak Micro Credit Scheme (SKMS), grants of RM2,250 for hawkers and petty traders registered with the local authorities, and so on.
He added another initiative was the Special Relief Fund (SRF) introduced by the federal government under the Prihatin package.
In addition, the state government had agreed to cover the interest costs for SMEs for a period of three and a half years for loans not exceeding RM500,000.
“Sarawak is the only state government which has prepared an interest-free facility for SRF,” he pointed out.
With regard to SKMS, Assistant Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais disclosed that as of June 17, a total of 640 applications valued at RM25.8 million had been received.
“Ninety-seven applications amounting to RM3.1 million have been approved,” he said, adding that an additional allocation of RM20 million had been made for SKMS, bringing the total allocation to RM50 million.
In terms of SRF, he said that as of June 16, a total of 2,310 applications valued at RM858 million had been approved by the seven banks involved.
For the grant programme of RM2,250 one-off payment for registered hawkers and petty traders, he said that 13,592 applications had been approved and paid as of June 24 while the remaining 17,945 applications were still under consideration.
Also participating in the session were Academy of Sciences Malaysia fellow Dr Madeline Berma, Agrobank covering president/chief executive officer Khadijah Iskandar and Grasicili founder Munir Ashim Abdullah.
