PUTRAJAYA MAR 17: In order to revitalise the economic activities, the government is implementing the Strategic Empowerment of the People and Economy or PEMERKASA worth RM20 billion with a new physical injection of RM11 billion.
Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said, before the plan was implemented the government had identified five main focus on the recovery and economic empowerment including controlling the spread of COVID-19, to spur the economic recovery, to strengthen the competency of the country, to implement the inclusiveness agenda of the territories and the society and economic transformation.
The Prime Minister said, PEMERKASA will focus on 20 strategic initiatives to elevate the economic growth, support the businesses and to continue targeted assistance for the people and sectors that are still affected.
“The first focus is to control the spreading of COVID-19 where the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) had been launched and the allocation had been increased from RM3billion to RM5 billion to speed up the targeted group immunisation by December 2021 instead of the first quarter of 2022,” said Muyiddin when announcing PEMERKASA on TV1 here this afternoon.
Muhyiddin added, in order to reduce the negative impact on the national economic activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government possibly will not impose the Movement Control Order (MCO) as a whole but implement it following the locality and focused on the related clusters only.
Among the initiatives is the Prihatin Special Grant (GKP) 3.0 where the government will continue to support to ensure the continuity of businesses especially among local small medium entrepreneurs (SMEs).
“Every qualified micro industry and SME will receive one-off RM1,000 and the application for GKP will be opened on 1st April for those who have not received GKP before. The grant is expected to benefit more than one million entrepreneurs”, said Muhyiddin.
On the micro-credit facility, Muhyiddin said, the government has agreed to increase an additional fund of RM500 million for financing the micro credit via various programmes under BSN, TEKUN, MARA and SME Corp.
Since the launch of the PenjanaKerjaya 2.0 under SOCSO, nearly 200,000 workers had been placed in the formal sectors. To help the people who have lost their jobs and income, the government will extend the scope of recruiting workers involving temporary jobs and gig work.
The government will allocate RM300 million that could benefit 60,000 workers in which every worker will receive RM600 per month for a maximum of six months and for the employers they can offer jobs on short term basis or the platform provider for gig services that are registered with SOCSO and they will receive RM200 for the placement of each worker.
Realising that certain sectors are still affected badly by the pandemic, the government has allocated RM700 million to extend the Payment Subsidy Programme 3.0 for three months in a targeted manner.
Among those affected include the tourism sectors, wholesale traders and retailers and other businesses that were closed during the MCO such as gymnasium for sports and spa. This initiative is expected to help 400,000 workers and 37,000 employers.
“To help the cash flow and to reduce the costs of hotel owners, theme parks, convention and shopping complexes, local airline company offices, travel and tourism agencies, the special discount of 10% for the electric bills will be extended for another three months until 30th June 2021.
“With the extension of the discount duration, the government has to bear the cost of RM135 million,” said Muhyiddin.
On the empowerment of the national competency, Muhyiddin said, the government is committed to bring in investors, to empower external trade, to raise the adaptation in digital technology applications and to guarantee a sustainable growth.
In order to help the SMEs to get loans, Bank Negara Malaysia will increase the Assistance Facilities and Targeted Recovery amounting RM2 billion while Automation Facilities and Digitalisation for RM700 million. With the additional facilities provided by Bank Negara, the SMEs will benefit RM6 billion.
With regards to women entrepreneurs’ empowerment, Muhyiddin said, the Kempen e-Dagang PKS and PKS Mikro and Shop Malaysia Online, the government will provide a RM30 million fund to help the people to shift to online market.
As an addition, Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) will also provide RM50 million for Financing Micro PEMERKASA-NITA scheme to encourage the women to involve in business. –Malaysia World News
