- With Malaysia’s largest budget in history revelaed by the Finance Minister, the country is looking forward to a better 2022 as for the most parts the budget is designed to revive the economy and chart a path of recovery.
- There is much to take in with all the various initiaitves and programs intoduced, indeed the role of private organisations is ever more important as they will be joint actors in this road Malaysia is taking for the next 12 months. In that sense here’s what some of the corporate leaders have to say.
- Standard Chartered CEO – Abrar A Anwar
- We welcome the allocation of MYR2 billion to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs) which will no doubt help to continue attracting quality investments to add value to the country’s economy. As facilitators of cross-border trade, we also welcome the provision of MYR25 million provided to Halal Development Corporation (HDC) for halal advisory, advocacy, digitalisation and development to support local halal businesses thrive within the global halal ecosystem.
- Industry 4.0 is gearing up with robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) transforming the industrial and commercial landscape, and digitalisation changing the way we work and play. As a leader in the digital banking space, we welcome the establishment of an innovation hub in Technology Park Malaysia – where Standard Chartered’s global operations hub is located – as a one-stop centre for innovation ecosystem and new technology cluster development that will benefit future technopreneurs. Aspiring entrepreneurs will also benefit from National Regulatory Sandbox under MOF along with the MyStartup strategy under MyDIGITAL initiative and the MYR45 million allocation for SMEs under Industry4WRD. Standard Chartered will continue to invest into innovating our services while working with the government, local partners and businesses to build a more accessible, future-ready and sustainable economy.
Plus Xnergy CEO- Ko Chuan Zhen,
Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul mentioned Malaysia as a signatory in the Paris Agreement. In fulfilling our obligations, he has announced a sustainable sukuk (Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance) of up to RM10 billion to finance eligible social or nature-friendly projects.
Given that sustainable bonds are loans used to finance projects that bring clear environmental and social-economic benefits, Plus Xnergy is excited to see the government take this bold action. As a clean energy solutionist, we are happy to see that out of the total sustainable bonds issued in Asean so far, 47%, or RM2.89bil, nearly half, relates to solar power plant projects.
RM100 Million for Smart Automation Matching Grants to Benefit 200 Manufacturing and Services companies
A renewing of the Smart Automation Matching Grants (SAG grant) with RM100 million is applauded as it will hasten the rate of automation and digitisation, channeled to the manufacturing and services industry.
Plus Xnergy welcomes this move as we have been utilising this grant extensively for our clients who adopt our smart AIoT energy solutions which access data points to translate business insights into energy saving. A push towards adopting IR4.0 is definitely the way forward as energy efficiency, energy monitoring, commercial and industrial building automation is slowly shaping the future of manufacturing.
Boost CEO- Sheyantha Abeykoon
Boost welcomes the Government’s commitment to revive the micro-enterprises and SME (MSME) business community. The RM40 billion allocated for the Semarak Niaga Keluarga Malaysia programme with a focus in increasing financing access to MSMEs will go a long way to shore up resources for long-term and sustainable recovery.
Prior to the pandemic, offline QR code-based transactions accounted for almost 70% of our payment volumes and online volumes were 30%. By mid 2021, we saw a huge shift, where 65% of our payment volumes were generated by online use cases. This exponential growth is representative of Malaysia’s structural shifts in customer behaviour in perferring cashless payment options and digitized services that will outlast the pandemic.
We are equally excited to see the implementation of the proposed e-Start programme that offers a one-off RM150 eWallet incentive that will benefit 2 million youths aged 18-20 years old and students in higher education institutions. Following on the heels of the successful eBelia initiative this year, we believe this will further drive cashless payment adoption.
OYO CEO- Tan Ming Luk
OYO welcomes the RM1.6 billion allocated for the recovery and rejuvenation of the tourism industry in Malaysia. From the RM600 million allocated for wage subsidies expected to benefit 26,000 employers and 330,000 employees, to grant matching for upgrading works on budget hotels and homestays, to allocations for tourism infrastructure maintenance, as well as the continuation of the RM1,000 tax rebate for tourism spending in 2022 – all of these will contribute to helping the tourism sector in Malaysia regain lost ground.
Tourism is one of the largest industries in Malaysia, contributing 15.9% to its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, and employing close to a quarter of the total workforce in Malaysia as of 2020, with 3.5 million employed persons comprising 23.1% of the total employment in Malaysia.
