(1) Our Malaysian Human Resources Minister declares that more than 25,000 Malaysian have registered as jobless in the ministry. The unemployment rate in Malaysia is predicted to increase between 4% - 4.5% this year, which means at least an additional of 200,000 to 400,000 Malaysia could be either retrenched, or jobless right after they obtained their degrees from college or university.
(2) The recent RM60 Billion mini-Budget announced by the Malaysian Government is aimed at four diverse areas: to increase the country’s productivity and competitiveness; to reduce the grief lies in the plight of jobless; to avert the price increases of necessities; and to obtain a better future for the country.
(3) What concern all Malaysians now are – does this RM60 billion help?
(4) Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that the RM60 billion mini-budget is not a “silver bullet” but rather a tool to protect the people from retrenchment and to ensure the nation’s continuous economic activity amidst the global economic downturn.
(5) As a Malaysian, I welcome decisions and policies coming from our Country Leaders.
(6) Coupons for daily consumables are more consumer-friendly than subsidies. Such incentive will increase the domestic demand and thus curtails the gap between supply and demand in the market. This approach is also more direct to the Rakyat (Malaysian) and can be distributed more evenly, thereby generating more cash flows within the markets.
(7) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, having accounted for 99.2% of our total business establishments and created 32% of the nation’s GDP and 19% of exports, are employing 5.6 million of the work force today. The Malaysian Government should therefore help the SMEs establish their competitive advantages in this global economic downturn by waiving more taxes so that they are competitive enough to compete with other SMEs or giant companies worldwide.
(8) The RM2billion SMA Assistance Guarantee Scheme is a step towards the right direction; however, expediting the process for funds and grants must be given utmost priority. The Government’s stimulus package providing such financial assistance to Malaysian businesses must be enforced with a sense of emergency. More and easy access to funds and grants are crucial at such trying times but slow in delivery system will definitely fail the well-intentioned stimulus plan.
(9) New channels of trading activity should now be explored. One significant consideration on the current market is the growing number of internet users and mobile subscribers. Borderless trading activities or global markets are easily available and accessible within just a click via ICT. Conventional businesses on the other hand will face limitations in this globalization era.
(10) Besides, Malaysia should optimize one of our important resources – tourism, on tackling the effect of crisis where supply now exceeds demand as exports have declined due to deteriorating demand from rich nations. As lesser exports are anticipated, why not look into bringing in more foreigners to spend their holidays in Malaysia instead? Malaysia must not forget our plentiful tourist attractions and fully-utilizing them. Monetary benefits given to travel agencies who are able to attract more foreigners for holidays in Malaysia will certainly boost the country’s market demand.
(11) Easy loan and grants to Malaysian women. 47% of the total work force in Malaysia is women whereas 16% out of the 548,267 SMEs in Malaysia are owned by women. Providing easy loan and grants to Malaysian women for their small scale business or home business to medium scale enterprises allow them to contribute to the recovery of the nation’s economic crisis. Women having been nurtured in a developing country are gaining more recognition for their substantial involvement in diverse businesses in Malaysia (besides their prominent spending capacity). As our higher education institutions are churning out more highly educated women into the workforce for Malaysia, providing financial assistance such as loan and grants for business purpose are much welcome.
(12) Notwithstanding the challenges Malaysia has to face, paying attention to the voice of affected segments in the country can turn out to be valuable turning points for Malaysia. A strong understanding of needs and right implementation at the right areas will see Malaysia walk out of this dark crisis tunnel. And whether staggering or walking out at a steady pace, Malaysians and especially the Country Leaders have to start walking and picking up the pace.
(Article also available in Hewo.com BloggerStation.)
1. The RM60billions mini budget is to act as stimulus during the crisis,will it be fairly distributed to the needy parties? If the crisis does not recover for a certatin period of time what will happen and then it will be out of budget.
ReplyDelete2. As you and I understand that it's global economic crisis. How are you going to bring in more foreign torists as other countries also facing the same problem as us, could be worst.
They could only afford to spend on necessities no more leisure, how could we boost up the tourism industry in this case.
3.Loans and grants can be given to SMES, it can be either being operated by men or women. If the flows are not there and peoples purchasing powers are low, I don't think it can be sucessful nor create a economy turnaround. They might landed up with unpaid debts at the end of the day.