PETALING JAYA: Time is running out for about 580,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) because if the economy is not fully opened by next month, many of them will collapse, says DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.
The former finance minister said, however, that the full opening does not look possible with the current high number of daily Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Lim said his assessment was based on a statement by former entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar in which he said that SMEs had suffered RM40.7 billion losses last year, with 580,000 businesses, representing 49% of the SME sector, facing the risk of collapse.
“With the number of daily deaths and infections continuing to remain high, there are doubts the economy can be fully reopened by October,” Lim said in a statement.
Yesterday, Malaysia had reported 330 deaths and 19,378 new infections.
Lim said there was an estimated one million SMEs, employing more than 7.3 million Malaysians in 2020. This number represented 48% of the workforce.
Furthermore, Lim added the Department of Statistics Malaysia reported lower business confidence in the third quarter of this year.
“This is the second most pessimistic outlook since the second quarter of 2020,” he said. - FMT
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