BALIK PULAU: With Malaysia being the fourth biggest overseas country to buy from China during the 11.11 Singles Day sales, Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin (pic) is renewing his call for Malaysians to support local businesses.
"Although it shows that we are economically keen on online shopping, most of the products purchased on 11.11 are from China. This leads to an outflow of our currency.
"I hope after the movement control order (MCO) is over, the people will come out and spend more domestically to support local small businesses," he said.
Sim was referring to the global online shopping day on Wednesday dubbed 11.11, which saw online retailers worldwide offering discounts at once.
Press reports indicated that Malaysia's volume of online purchases from China based on gross merchandise value came in fourth, behind the United States, Russia and France.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the Batu Maung market on Saturday (Nov 14), Sim also said the welfare of school and tour bus drivers as well as school canteen operators was not addressed in the recently tabled Budget 2021.
He said the three sectors were badly affected by the loss of income, especially with the conditional MCO imposed on all states in Peninsular Malaysia, except for Kelantan, Perlis and Pahang until Dec 6.
"These sectors are faced with almost three months of total income loss, including about 10,000 canteen operators at schools.
"I feel their concerns were not addressed during the Budget and I hope they will receive attention," said Sim.
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