KJ: PM to announce more economic assistance soon

 

The government will be providing another round of economic assistance soon, according to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Speaking at a webinar this afternoon, he said the initiative would be announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

"I believe the prime minister will be making the announcement soon on a big economic assistance package.

"(But) I do not want to pre-empt the announcement," Khairy said during the online engagement session with the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malaysia (NCCIM) in conjunction with its 45th annual general meeting.

The minister was answering a question from a member of the chamber who wanted to know if the government had any plan to assist industry players who were badly affected by the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

President of the Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry N Gobalakrishnan said many employers could no longer afford to pay salaries.

"What is the next action by the government to help industry players? We are going through a bad time," he said.

The planned new stimulus package will be the eighth introduced by Putrajaya since February 2020. So far there have been direct fiscal injections amounting to RM77.6 billion (0.5 percent of the GDP).

The last stimulus package - known as Pemerkasa Plus and introduced on May 31 - involved a direct fiscal injection of RM5 billion.

The World Bank, meanwhile, has revised Malaysia's GDP growth projection for this year to 4.5 percent, considerably lower than Bank Negara's projection of six to 7.5 percent.

In the June edition of its "Malaysia Economic Monitor", it noted that the country suffered ineffective Covid-19 containment and a slow vaccine rollout.

It also said that many SMEs surveyed were having trouble with cash flows and access to financing.

It warned that Malaysia's economic recovery hinged on policies to promote immediate relief and on clear, accessible and targeted support programmes to enable firms to preserve liquidity.

Among others, it recommended an extension of wage subsidies, making Covid-19 protocols more predictable besides expediting approvals and disbursements of loans.

The World Bank said in the long term, Malaysia would also have to undergo deep structural reforms for a private-led post-pandemic economic recovery. - Mkini