PETALING JAYA: The special cabinet committee on the National Recovery Plan (JKKPPN) will be strengthening cooperation with health, economic and social experts to ensure that Malaysia is able to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis in a phased and systematic manner.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who is also the coordinating Minister of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), said the country’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic is an ongoing effort by the government.
“The NRP is a holistic solution plan that presents a comprehensive exit strategy from the Covid-19 pandemic crisis for Malaysia,” Tengku Zafrul said in the 61st Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (Laksana) report yesterday.
He said the implementation of the NRP has five main objectives, namely protecting the public health sector by managing the spread of the pandemic, reducing hospital admissions and deaths, ensuring that the health system can bear the burden sustainably, ensuring the country’s Covid-19 immunisation programme to protect the people is running smoothly, reopening the economy and social activities as soon as possible and ensuring the NRP is responsive and flexible in an ever-changing environment.
The first JKKPPN was chaired by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin last Friday to monitor the implementation of strategies and assistance under the NRP.
Meanwhile, to help micro small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) meet the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tengku Zafrul said the government had introduced the special prihatin grant or GKP initiative: a one-off cash assistance to eligible MSMEs.Under GKP 3.0, the government has disbursed RM1bil or RM1,000 for each MSME and has disbursed RM500mil or RM500 for each MSME since July 12.
Meanwhile, under the People’s Protection and Economic Recovery Package or Pemulih announced on June 28, Tengku Zafrul said the government remained committed to supporting the business sector, especially MSMEs through the GKP 4.0.
According to Tengku Zafrul, the recovery package aims to ease the financial burden of the MSMEs so that they can weather this challenging period.
GKP 4.0 involves an allocation of RM1bil, where payments will be made in September 2021 (RM500) and November 2021 (RM500) involving existing GKP recipients as well as newly-approved applicants.
Separately, Tengku Zafrul said 322,177 employers and 2.64 million employees have received the wage subsidy programme (PSU) benefits under Prihatin and Penjana.
As of July 2, the approved wage subsidy applications have reached a value of RM13bil.
Meanwhile, under the PSU 2.0, a total RM1.3bil has been disbursed to 76,083 employers as at July 2, 2021, to continue to operate and retain employment for 669,289 employees.
Separately, Tengku Zafrul said financing worth RM400mil has been allocated for farmers, planters and fishermen.
“Under this scheme, RM350mil is an allocation under the Agrobank microcredit financing scheme,” he said.
As of July 2, a total of RM167.98mil has been disbursed under this scheme to benefit 13,720 agricultural MSMEs.
Food security was emphasised in the Penjana Plan and Budget 2021.
Meanwhile, a total of RM76.62mil had been disbursed to 13,873 businesses in the form of grants and loans for digitalisation service subscriptions as oj July 2, according to Tengku Zafrul.