Selangor Journal
Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari during the Selangor State Legislative Assembly sitting, in Shah Alam, on August 24, 2021. — Picture by NAZIR KHAIRI/SELANGORKINI

Selangor’s stimulus packages help industries, people affected by pandemic

By Alang Bendahara

SHAH ALAM, Aug 24 — Selangor’s stimulus packages introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic had helped soften the blow on the state’s economy by enabling the industry to continue operating and taking care of the people’s welfare.

Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said the stimulus packages focus on addressing the pandemic impact on the people through the implementation of welfare activities and give an injection to the economic activities so that it can run faster and stronger.

“This can be seen when I tabled Selangor Prihatin 3 and Kita Selangor Package 2.0 through the implementation of the Selangor Kerjaya, Selangor Advance and Selangor Innovation Fund involving a total cost of RM500 million,” he told the Selangor State Legislative Assembly today.

Amirudin, who is also Sungai Tua state assemblyman, said the Selangor Advance initiative had helped more than 900 companies and over 50,000 workers who may have lost their jobs if not for the programme, which helped inject cash flow into the companies.

He said this when answering joint oral questions on the state’s economy posed by state assemblymen from  Rawang (Chua Wei Kiat), Sementa (Dr Daroyah Alwi), Banting (Lau Weng San), Sungai Burong (Datuk Mohd Shamsudin Lias) and Seri Kembangan (Ean Yong Hian Wah) during the sitting today.

In March last year, the state administration announced the Selangor Prihatin economic stimulus package worth RM127.78 million, followed by the second phase on April 1 worth RM272 million.

The state’s economic recovery plan of RM55.8 billion in economic value was tabled on July 13 last year, followed by the Kita Selangor Package amounting to 73.8 million, which was announced on January 20. Then on June 9, Amirudin announced the allocation of RM551.56 million for the Kita Selangor Package 2.0.

Amirudin added that the state had also come out with other innovations such as the Selangor Platform (Plats) and the Selangor e-Bazaar campaign to help traders affected by the pandemic.

“Initiatives such as Plats, the Selangor e-Bazaar campaigns have helped over 70,000 micro, small and medium entrepreneur companies and created a ripple effect of more than RM1 billion, which had stimulated the state’s economic sector,” he said.

The state had held four e-bazaar campaigns, starting from the 2020 Raya e-bazaar during movement control order (MCO) 1.0, followed by the 11.11 Mega Sales e-bazaar, 2021 CNY e-bazaar and this year’s 2021 Raya e-bazaar.

Amirudin said that the state, through Perbadanan Kemajuan Pertanian Selangor (PKPS), had allocated RM50 million to identify lands to be developed to not only produce food but to link up the food chain supply so that the state will not face the shortages of food supply as it did during the movement control order (MCO) 1.0.

Meanwhile, Amirudin also said that if the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showed a negative reading, Selangor would register a bigger negative number.

“But in 2020, the Federal government GDP registered -5.6 per cent, while Selangor’s is at -5.3 per cent, which is out of the norm,” he said.

Amirudin attributed this to measures by the government to allow essential services to continue operating during the MCO and limit the MCO, and enhanced MCO lockdowns to certain localities during outbreaks.

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