KUALA LUMPUR – The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC) is committed to ensuring that the Strategic Programme to Empower the People and Economy (PEMERKASA) initiative can be enjoyed immediately by targeted entrepreneurs so that their business activities can continue and recover from the economic slowdown due to COVID-19, reported Bernama.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said MEDAC was ready to assist in channelling all PEMERKASA incentives to the affected entrepreneurs and cooperatives.
“MEDAC welcomes the initiative presented by the Prime Minister in PEMERKASA which outlines five main focuses of economic recovery and empowerment programmes throughout 2021.
“With this announcement, it is hoped that entrepreneurs will be able to continue their business operations during this difficult period,” he said in a statement on March 18.
Among the incentives related to entrepreneurs are the Prihatin 3.0 Special Grant, which is a one-off assistance of RM1,000, as well as an additional fund of RM500 million for micro credit financing facilities through programmes under Bank Simpanan Nasional, TEKUN, Majlis Amanah Rakyat, and SME Corp.
Besides, the empowerment of women entrepreneurs through the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and Micro SME e-Commerce Campaign, as well as the Shop Malaysia Online programme with an allocation of RM30 million to help them embark on a transition to the online market.
For cooperatives, there is a financing incentive of RM100,000 without collateral from the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia to help COVID-19-hit cooperatives.
“A total of RM50 million from the Revolving Capital Fund of the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia will be allocated which is expected to help more than 14,000 cooperatives,” he said.