Businesses at risk in the FCLO category provide non-essential products and services such as spa and wellness, entertainment, event management, sports and fitness, as well as beauty and grooming.
KUCHING (July 29): Some 580,000 businesses, or 49 per cent of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, in Malaysia are at risk of failing if they are still not allowed to resume operations by October, said Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister said these businesses are mainly in the First to Close Last to Open (FCLO) category.
“Businesses in the FCLO category provide non-essential products and services such as spa and wellness, entertainment, event management, sports and fitness, beauty and grooming, and many more,” he said in a statement today.
Based on a survey conducted by the ministry, Wan Junaidi said more than 70 per cent of entrepreneurs were in the B40 group, with very little savings and did not have any employment benefit.
He said more than 90 per cent of these entrepreneurs had no insurance and 70 per cent were without safety nets to fall back on should their businesses fail.
“The MSME sector involves directly with the people. Failure to help this sector would have a devastating impact on the country’s socioeconomic landscape as well as the people’s overall well-being,” he added.
The survey, conducted from June 15-28, gauged the impact of the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 on the entrepreneurship landscape in the country.
A total of 6,664 respondents from across the nation took part in the survey.