Tough for economy to fully reopen with pandemic still raging, says Guan Eng

 

Lim Guan Eng doubts if the economy can fully reopen by October with the Covid-19 pandemic still not under control.

PETALING JAYA: A full reopening of the economy by October may not be entirely possible with the number of daily deaths remaining high at 212 and infections at 17,236 yesterday, says DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

Lim said there are only two months left before the economy must fully reopen otherwise the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, comprising nearly 1 million businesses, will collapse.

In a statement, he urged the government to take bold steps, including waiving the interest on the six-month automatic bank loan moratorium for all business and individual borrowers, except for those in the Top 10 of the income bracket.

Lim said the government should also channel RM30 billion to businesses in the form of grants and monetary incentives, aside from wage, rent and utility subsidies, to save jobs and delay business closures.

He said DAP also repeated its call for welfare assistance to be increased to RM1,000 monthly, including for the unemployed, to help families survive.

There is also a need for the government to immediately allocate RM6 billion to create 300,000 new jobs offering hiring incentives to employers of at least RM3,000 per month and wage incentives to workers amounting to at least RM500 per month, for two years.

He said this would be important to address the worsening unemployment situation in the country, as seen with the statistics department (DoSM) reporting an increase in the unemployment rate to 4.8% in June, compared with 4.5% in May.

DoSM also reported that the value of construction work done in the second quarter of this year has declined by 10.2% to RM28.2 billion from RM31.4 billion in the first quarter.

“No wonder local and foreign analysts in Nikkei and Bloomberg are seeing Malaysia’s growth development model on the brink of collapse and growing to be a failed state,” Lim said.

He called on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to act now to help businesses to save jobs, lives and livelihoods, “despite already losing his legitimacy as premier”.

“He cannot do nothing while waiting for September,” he said, referring to the next Parliament sitting when a confidence vote in the prime minister will be tabled. - FMT