Malaysia: At least 6 months before economy recovers, says minister

• The government expects the country’s economy to need at least six months (Sep 20) to recover after the Covid-19 crisis ends, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Mustapa Mohamed.
• He said the estimated recovery period was reasonable with the support of the right strategies. “We pray for that, so surely we need to find another strategy to recover,” he said after appearing on the Ruang Bicara talk show on Bernama TV last night.
• He added that various sectors, including tourism, hospitality, retail and investment, were adversely affected by the pandemic.
• “The tourism sector, for example, visitors would not be coming into Malaysia immediately, so we have to intensify our promotional activities.”
• He said several Covid-19 affected countries expected their recovery to be between nine months to a year at the earliest to rebuild their respective economies.
• Meanwhile, he said the government was ready to discuss with some of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as micro-entrepreneurs who said they were left out of the people-centric economic stimulus package.
• “SMEs are big in numbers and it is beyond the government’s ability. But the government is always open to them as they represent more than 60% in the workforce.” Currently, there are around 907,000 local entrepreneurs in the country.

External Link : https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/233179