everyone must raised the issue on next agm, what are their next goal. wonder why price keep dropped everyday, they must up to something that we didn't know. From beginning, they are more focus on imedic. They should rely on another greater product too to support the loss.
In the past week since the announcement of the highly anticipated Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package worth RM250 billion on March 27, a chorus of frustration has been heard from one group — small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Business associations have appealed to the government to come up with more measures to help them ease their cash flow problems and financial constraints.
Entrepreneurs have taken to the media or social media to voice their concerns, as their businesses have been disrupted like never before because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 28-day Movement Control Order (MCO) that began on March 18.
In particular, the SMEs are finding themselves among the hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, considering that big corporations are at least arguably in a better position to withstand the headwinds.
Before going into details, let us take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
The RM250 billion stimulus is a combination of two packages launched by the government — the first being Pakatan Harapan’s
RM20 billion worth of measures on Feb 27, followed by a RM230 billion booster from Perikatan Nasional exactly a month later.
Of the second package, almost RM128 billion will be channelled to preserve the people’s welfare, RM100 billion to support businesses, including SMEs, and the remaining RM2 billion to strengthen the economy.
According to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, the Prihatin package is among the world’s largest and shows the government’s seriousness in mitigating the fallout from Covid-19.
“[The stimulus package] is about 17% of the nation’s gross domestic product [GDP], whereas the UK’s is 16%, and the US’ and
Singapore’s are 11%,” he said on national TV on March 29.
If the Prihatin package is indeed one of the world’s largest — and includes an allocation of 40%, or RM100 billion, to support businesses — why are business owners still so unhappy?
‘Save us to save jobs’ SME Association of Malaysia president Datuk Michael Kang Hua Keong tells The Edge that the Prihatin package did not address the challenges that SMEs face, especially their cash flow problems.
“To many businesses, their cash in hand can last them only until March or April. When they have zero revenue, how are they going to pay all their fixed expenses? And if you think about it, two-thirds of Malaysians are relying on the SMEs [as their source of income]. If the SMEs collapse, many people will lose their jobs,” he warns.
As clichéd as it sounds, SMEs are the backbone of Malaysia’s economy.
In 2018, local SMEs, which comprised 98.5% of the local business population, contributed 38.3% to the overall GDP, 17.3% to total exports and 66.2% to total employment in the country.
National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) secretary-general Datuk Low Kian Chuan points out that the country’s economy is not only slowing down but, to a certain extent, also experiencing almost zero economic activity.
“The government should realise that businesses, be they SMEs or big corporations, are very concerned about the current situation. It’s not just a cash flow problem; we are talking about zero income here,” he tells The Edge.
Johor South SME Association adviser Teh Kee Sin believes a tripartite partnership between the government, employers and employees is needed to save the economy.
“All of us have to survive this crisis hand in hand, even if it means we have to lose money in the next two years. The government needs to save the SMEs to save jobs,” he says.
Although the cash handouts to the B40 and M40 income groups have drawn criticism, Teh says this measure could help boost domestic consumption, given that foreigners are not coming to the country to spend.
“The government’s intention is good. Everybody is closing their doors now. Even if you do have orders in hand, you cannot do anything, because nobody is going to accept the goods,” Teh says.
Nevertheless, he urges the government to come up with more effective measures to rescue the SMEs so that people can keep their jobs.
“I can’t find a better word to describe this, but many businesses will ‘die’. We need at least two years to recover from this crisis,” he says.
Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) president and Baker Tilly Johor partner Huang Shze Jiun concurs. “The most important thing is to save jobs. If you cannot keep people employed, you will have a vicious cycle, as in businesses cannot be sustained. Accounting firms like us are also relying on SMEs to survive. If they fail, all of us will suffer together,” he says.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
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Posted by Newplayer286 > 2019-12-23 10:23 | Report Abuse
Faster collect, Feb can harvest