Press Statement
The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce And Industry of Sarawak (ACCCIS) welcomes the additional RM141.7 million of financial assistance and initiatives provided by the state government under the Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance (BKSS) 5.0 package announced by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan yesterday and is grateful that the Sarawak Government has heard the voices and responded to the concerns of the businesses community, in particular the SMEs, pertaining to their hardships and the impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is vital to safeguard SMEs against closure and winding up of their businesses as this will result in massive retrenchments and loss of income for workers as well as detrimental to the recovery of our ailing economy.
The assistance initiatives under additional RM141.70 million worth of the BKSS 5.0, included:
1. RM50 million for Sarawak Micro Credit Scheme (SKMS);
2. RM20 million for Small and Medium Industry Financing Scheme (SPIKS);
3. RM22.2 million for interest subsidy under the Targeted Relief and Recovery Facility (TRRF);
4. RM2.5 million for interest subsidy under Penjana Tourism Financing (PTF);
5. RM20 million for Graduates Towards Entrepreneurship (Gerak) as well as Vocational and Technical Entrepreneurs (Ustev) programmes;
6. RM20 million for Go Digital Sarawak programme; and
7. RM2 million for Digital Marketing Training programme
ACCCIS would like to encourage its members especially those who have missed out on the opportunities of securing any financing facilities made available through the commercial banks by Bank Negara Malaysia previously under SRF to grab this opportunity to apply for financial assistance through the Targeted Relief and Recovery Facility (TRRF), a financing facility made available by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to provide relief and support for SMEs in the services sector (except the tourism and the tourism-related subsectors) affected by reintroduction of containment measures since June 2020. The TRRF applications are also extended to those SMEs not eligible of Special Relief Facility (SRF), PENJANA SME Financing (PSF) and / or PEMJANA Tourism Financing (PTF).
The RM2 billion – TRRF scheme allocated by the federal government for SMEs throughout Malaysia is catered for working capital only. The TRRF initiative provides loans of up to RM500,000 with 3.5 per cent interest for 7 years, inclusive of 6 month’s moratorium. Under the BKSS 5.0 additional financial aids package, Sarawak government will absorb the cost of interest of those qualified SMEs under the TRRF for a duration of 3.5 years.
Hence, eligible and needy SMEs are encouraged to promptly apply for the loans directly from any of the participating financial institutions.
