SME ASSOCIATION of Malaysia (SME Malaysia) has warned that 40% of small and medium enterprises will shut down for good if the government imposes another full lockdown.

“It will spell the immediate end for all businesses across the nation,” its president, Michael Kang, said in a statement yesterday.

He said an initial report from the association’s dialogue with members indicated that 91% of SMEs expected their revenue to be affected by MCO 3.0, with 37.5% of these companies anticipating a drop of more than 50% in business performance.

The association is currently conducting a nationwide survey on the impact of MCO 3.0.

“The survey also shows that 84.5% of SMEs will be significantly affected by MCO 3.0. If the same measures that were enforced during MCO 1.0 are exacted in MCO 3.0, more than 40% of SMEs will be in dire straits and two million jobs will be lost,” Kang said.

The survey also found 65% of respondents stated that a blanket loan moratorium was necessary, 88.5% agreed that business performance would be significantly affected if the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) was delayed and 50.4% would like a private immunisation programme.

Kang said a key finding in the survey was that 95.8% had requested the government to give out more incentives to assist SMEs as quickly as possible.

There have been calls for the government to impose a full lockdown to stem the spike in Covid-19 cases.

At the moment, the country is under MCO 3.0 but economic sectors are allowed to operate under strict standard operating procedures. – May 20, 2021.