Three Economic Shields Needed To Help 1m Unemployed Malaysians

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MP SPEAKS | One million unemployed Malaysians by September requires three economic "shields" costing RM31.4 billion to save jobs and livelihood, comprising RM1,000 monthly aid, an extension of the bank loan moratorium by another six months as well as work hiring incentives for employers and employees
With the unemployment rate at 4.9 percent or 773,200 in June 2020, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said that as of September, the number of job seekers in the country could rise to one million
Saravanan attributed the increase of unemployed Malaysians to one million due to an additional 350,000 fresh graduates and 200,000 Malaysians returning from abroad
One million unemployed Malaysians would be the highest in history and require immediate action by the government through increased borrowing of tens of billions of ringgit
DAP proposes three economic shields costing RM31.4 billion. One, immediate implementation of the increase in monthly welfare aid from RM200-300 to RM1,000 proposed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin costing RM12 billion. This will provide an immediate safety net for unemployed workers
Secondly, the extension of the bank loan repayments moratorium by another six months when it expires on Sept 30. This will cost RM6.4 billion and help eight million Malaysians and companies
Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said that the value of the loan moratorium is RM78.14 billion as of Aug 21, 2020. RM27.35 billion was utilised by 300,000 businesses, while RM50.79 billion was utilised by 7.7 million individuals
Three, work hiring incentives under Malaysia@Work of RM500 a month to employees and RM300 to employers to encourage them to hire local workers as proposed by Pakatan Harapan in the 2020 Budget
Expanding this scheme to cover 600,000 Malaysian workers and their employers would cost RM13 billion. This would also help the more than 500,000 youths who are unemployed, making up a large proportion of the 4.9 percent unemployment rate
Malaysia is the worst performing economy in Asean with a gross domestic production contraction of 17.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020. In order to save and pull the economy out of our current economic recession, the government’s financial focus should shift from controlling our debt levels and fiscal deficit to borrowing more money
Borrowing RM31.4 billion to help the one million unemployed Malaysians may be costly but necessary to save Malaysian jobs, businesses and livelihoods
LIM GUAN ENG is Bagan MP, former finance minister, and former Penang chief minister. - MkiniThe views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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