Easing of restrictions would help boost businesses in Malaysia
- Claire Lee
- Topics: Health and Wellness, Home Page - News, Malaysia, News
The easing of COVID-19 restrictions could help to revitalise businesses, said Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister.
“Micro, small and medium industries (MSME) are very dependent on the support of the people or customers to ensure business continuity. It cannot be denied that the government’s effort in ramping up the vaccination rate has achieved commendable success,” he said in a statement.
“It is proven that the people have responded to the government’s call to get vaccinated. It is hoped that MSME will not be excluded from this vaccination [drive],” he added.
In 2020, the MSME sector, spanning over 1.15 million businesses, employed 7.3 million people or almost half of the country’s workforce, according to Bernama.
READ: Malaysia’s unemployment rises to 4.8% in June
Over 580,000 MSMEs are at risk of failing by October if operations are still restricted by then, based on a survey conducted in June by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC). This would cause over seven million Malaysians to lose their jobs, Wan Junaidi remarked then.
