Zafrul: Wage subsidies eased cashflow crisis

Good read: Tengku Zafrul (left) and influencer Financial Faiz aka Faiz Azmi discussing the effects of the pandemic on the SMEs.

KUALA LUMPUR: Cashflow was among the main problems faced by companies struggling to stay afloat during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.

The then Finance Minister said wage subsidies helped micro, small and medium-scale businesses keep afloat as they were faced with cashflow issues.

“Many companies, especially SMEs (small and medium enterprises), were unable to pay wages.

We disbursed RM21bil for the wage subsidy programme and this saved 3,800 companies,” said Tengku Zafrul, now the International Trade and Industry Minister.

Tengku Zafrul was speaking at the launch of the Bahasa Malaysia version of his book Weathering the Economic Storm: A Journey Through the Unchartered Waters of Covid-19 (Mengharungi Badai Ekonomi: Mengemudi Bahtera Menelurusi Gelombang Covid-19) at The International Gallery in KLGCC yesterday.

He said the translation took about three months to complete.

“We wanted this book to be as general as possible so that it would be an easy read,” he said.

Regarding the recently announced investments into Malaysia from Tesla and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the minister said more projects were in the pipeline.

“We are expecting more, and we hope we can continue the momentum.

“We know that 2023 will be a challenging year, looking at the global economic outlook.

“However, when you look at investments, they are long-term in nature, so we need to continue to focus on getting the right types for Malaysia.

“I am optimistic that we have the right package and will be able to continue to attract investors to Malaysia,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul said such investments must also benefit workers here, adding that the target was to increase household incomes.

“We have been in the middle-income trap for quite a while and one of the ways to help this is for domestic and foreign investments to increase productivity so that workers’ incomes can also increase,” he said.