KUCHING: The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (Medac) together with its agencies are committed to assisting micro and informal businesses in migrating towards e-commerce, helping them prepare for the third round of nationwide movement control order (MCO 3.0).
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that after having gone through several rounds of lockdown, entrepreneurs should realise by now that going digital is vital to ensure their operations are able to withstand challenges in today’s post Covid-19 era.
He said those who resisted digitalisation would suffer as more and more consumers now preferred to shop online.
Based on a recent survey conducted by Medac, 57.74 percent of consumers prefer to shop online after MCO 2.0, from only 19.24 percent previously. The consumer survey was conducted from Feb 24 to Mar 5 this year, involving 2,888 respondents.
“It is important for businesses to repackage their entire products and services so that they can be marketed online. Not only that, they need also to look into ways on how they can enhance their online presence so that customers can easily find them on the internet.
“At Medac, through our agencies, we provide a holistic, hand-holding assistance for entrepreneurs from micro-financing, training, coaching, management skills, as well as business networking. We understand the difficulties faced by small businesses and are prepared to assist to digitalise their business,” he said.
Earlier on Monday (May 10), Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the nationwide enforcement of MCO 3.0 effective today (May 12) until June 7 to battle the rising number of Covid-19 cases.
The movement restrictions have severely impacted the economy, whereby it is estimated that the country has suffered RM2.4 billion in losses per day during the first MCO and RM300 million daily during the second MCO this year.
In view of this, Wan Junaidi called on Malaysians to do their part to help curb the spread of Covid-19 by strictly adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and to quickly register for the national Covid-19 immunisation programme.
To date, based on the latest information obtained from MySejahtera, he said only 10 million Malaysians had registered for the programme, and in many states, the average rate was still lower than 50 percent of the population.
“Your safety is your responsibility. We need everyone’s cooperation to fight Covid-19. Until we are able to vaccinate 80 percent of the population, I worry that we will not be able to fully execute our recovery plans and the economy and the people will suffer,” he said.
Wan Junaidi, who is also Santubong MP, had earlier presented RM63,400 worth of donations to 327 recipients from the ‘asnaf’ group living in Tanjung Datu, Pantai Damai, and Demak Laut.
In the spirit of sharing and caring, he hoped that the assistance — a contribution from Bank Rakyat — would bring cheer to these families and ensure that they also feel the excitement of celebrating Syawal.
Wan Junaidi (second left) hands over Bank Rakyat’s contribution for those in the ‘asnaf’ group living in Tanjung Datu, Pantai Damai, and Demak Laut. 
Wan Junaidi (second left) hands over Bank Rakyat’s contribution for those in the ‘asnaf’ group living in Tanjung Datu, Pantai Damai, and Demak Laut. 
Wan Junaidi (second left) hands over Bank Rakyat’s contribution for those in the ‘asnaf’ group living in Tanjung Datu, Pantai Damai, and Demak Laut.
