According to the Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MoF) the approval of the Wage Subsidy Programme 1.0 (WSP 1.0) has totalled to RM12.76 billion as of January 29.
WSP is the government’s initiative to aid employers experiencing a decrease in more than 50 percent of their revenues since January 2020. The WSP covers for six months, effective from April 1, 2020 or from the month applied.
Speaking at the 40th Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (LAKSANA) report, Finance Minister, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said that 322,177 employers and 2.64 million employers are the beneficiaries of the WSP 1.0.
The employers who received the subsidiary are under the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN) and the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA).
“As for WSP 2.0 under the Prihatin Supplementary Initiative Package (KITA PRIHATIN), a total of RM741.16 million has been channelled to 64,345 employers to enable them to continue operating and maintain 518,793 employees.
Under Budget 2021, targeted WSP was also introduced to assist the tourism and retail sectors, while all sectors affected by the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) this year are eligible to receive WSP 3.0 support under the Malaysian Economic and Rakyat’s Protection Assistance Package (PERMAI),” he said.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister has estimated to create more than 160,000 jobs through committed investments in 2021 with initiatives from MoF and the National Employment Council.
“It is hoped that the joint efforts by multiple parties can reduce the unemployment rate in the coming months since we reached 4.8 unemployment rate at the end of December 2020,” Tengku Zafrul concluded.
Readers can access https://www.myfuturejobs.gov.my/ and https://latih.hrdf.com.my/ to get information on the government’s effort in creating jobs.
