KUALA LUMPUR: About 37,415 businesses closed following the implementation of the Movement Control Order 3.0 (MCO 3.0) beginning May this year.
Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar said of the figure, 26,007 were micro-entrepreneurs and 2,738 were small-medium enterprises (SME).
According to him, the statistics were from an impact study of MCO 3.0 conducted between June 15 and 28 this year.
Noh said this in response to a written parliamentary question by Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) who asked for the latest statistics involving local businesses that have gone bankrupt so far as well as the ministry’s efforts to assist them.
According to Noh, the ministry has formed a taskforce to help the entrepreneurs through three main approaches, mainly through injection of financial aid.
He also pledged to resolve all related issues within the first 100 days of taking over the ministry.
“There will be recovery efforts to cater to affected entrepreneurs and cooperatives through funding assistance from 26 programmes with an allocation of RM7.06 billion, including the moratorium provided to entrepreneurs, involving 192,541 beneficiaries.
“Assistance will be provided to the unemployed, youths and graduates, dependents, and the disabled who have ventured into entrepreneurship which includes the implementation of 15 programmes with an allocation of RM40.4 million, involving 2,570 beneficiaries
“The resilience of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will be strengthened through the adaptation of digital technology which includes the implementation of 11 programmes with an allocation of RM14.8 million, involving 8,950 beneficiaries,” he said in the parliamentary reply yesterday.
So far, the programmes that have been implemented include Tekun’s Online Marketing Programme, Tunas Usahawan Belia Bumiputera Programme (Tube), and Micro Entrepreneur Development Programme (BizME) Micro Connector. -NST