KUCHING, Sept 7 — The Sarawak government has agreed to give rental payment exemption to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating at 15 ready-built factories at Phase 3 of the Demak Baru Industrial Park, here, for six months from July.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said the decision involved a total rental payment exemption of RM123,750 under the Sayang Sarawakku Special Aid (BKSS) package to help reduce the operational costs of the affected SMEs.
“The state government also gives a rental payment exemption amounting to RM2 million until December 31, 2021 to the SMEs operating at the business premises owned by the state’s statutory bodies and government-linked companies (GLCs),” he said at a news conference held at his office, here, today.
“A rental discount of 50 per cent is also given to 3,200 tenants at the Sarawak Housing Development Corporation (HDC ) schemes and 10,000 registered hawkers renting the market and food stalls under the local authorities until this December 31.
“Besides that, a discount of up to 25 per cent is given for the water and electricity bills and 30 per cent discount on the quit rent and assessment rates so as to lessen the people’s burden including that of entrepreneurs and all these forms of aid are being implemented until December 31, 2021,” he added.
Awang Tengah, who is also Sarawak Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development, said an additional allocation of RM10 million had been approved by the state government for grants under the Graduands Towards Entrepreneurship (Gerak) Programme and the Technical and Vocational Entrepreneurs (Ustev) Programme.
“Up to August, 264 of the 525 applications for the Gerak programme were approved with the grants worth RM3.34 million, while 388 of the 596 applications for the Ustev programme were also approved with the grants given amounting to RM4.42 million,” he added.
On the status of the aid programmes implemented by his ministry, Awang Tengah said 1,463 applications received for the Sarawak Micro Credit Scheme (SKMS) from entrepreneurs in the B40 group, small and micro enterprise operators were approved with the aid amounting to RM48 million.
He also said that 411 applications for the Medium and Small Industry Loan Scheme (SPIKS) for Bumiputera SMEs were approved with the loans amounting to RM30.13 million.
Source: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/09/07/sarawak-govt-gives-rental-exemption-to-smes-impacted-by-covid-19-pandemic/2003767