A hairstylist using personal protective equipment trims a customer’s hair. — Bernama photo
KUCHING (July 29): Malaysia’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector suffered losses totalling RM40.7 billion last year due to the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO) enforced to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said this was by far the biggest ever losses incurred by the MSME sector.
“It is a strong indication how much the entrepreneurs are suffering from not being able to open up their businesses,” he said in a statement today.
Based on the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s latest statistics, the MSME sector’s gross domestic product (GDP) contribution suffered more than a 7 per cent year-on-year decline to RM512.8 billion last year against RM553.5 billion in 2019.
This marked an anomaly as, for the past 15 years, MSME growth had always been higher than the non-MSME sector.
Looking at the current 1.15 million registered MSME nationwide, Wan Junaidi said the losses would mean that each MSME company incurred an average drop in earnings of RM35,000 last year.
He feared that this situation would also affect the country’s aspirations to increase the MSMEs GDP and export value contribution to 50 per cent and 30 per cent respectively by 2030 under the National Entrepreneurship Policy (NEP).
“MCO is no longer the answer to the problem. We have to accept the fact that we need to live with Covid-19 and find a balanced solution for this.
“That is why my ministry has proposed enhanced standard operating procedures (SOPs) so that we are able to speed up the reopening of economic activities, particularly those in non-essential category,” he said.
The ministry had on Tuesday submitted to the government proposed enhanced SOPs to help speed up the opening of businesses, particularly those in the First to Close Last to Open (FCLO) category.
According to him, the proposed enhanced SOPs focus on six economic activities namely food and beverages (F&B dine-in), shopping malls, watches shop, pedicure and manicure (grooming services), beauty parlour/salon, and barber/hair salon.
He added that almost half of the business activities identified were owned by women entrepreneurs — among the groups most affected by the nationwide MCO.