As COVID-19 has changed the way many businesses operate, Malaysia’s only business station BFM held a live Webinar yesterday.

It featured entrepreneurs with their take of life after the lockdown, called Movement Control order (MCO), which came in force on March 18 and has been extended to April 14. 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin first announced an economic stimulus package worth RM250 billion on March 27. 

Later he also announced that SMEs contributed to 40 per cent of the economy, and it was necessary to sustain them through these trying times. He increased the allocation for the previously announced wage subsidy programme to RM13.8 billion from the original RM5.9 billion. This was applicable to companies with local workers earning below RM4,000. 

In its webinar, BFM discussed whether RM 10 Billion from the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package was sufficient for SMEs to survive the MCO?

The panelists included Yeoh Chen Chow (Fave), Fong Wai Hong (StoreHub) & Razif Abdul Aziz (Cradle).

Wai Hong said that he didn’t feel the new package was going to help employers keep their jobs as they would have to shell out close to RM 30,000 in operating expenses over three months in order to claim RM 10,00 from the government to pay their employees, while generating close to zero revenue.

Razif Abdul Aziz felt that the package can give start-ups some breathing room and buy them some time to recalibrate to go forward, but there was a need to look beyond subsidies and find other options to encourage and stimulate economic activity.