KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Government yesterday announced that it would be giving an extra help to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sabah.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal said this included reducing the rentals by about 30 percent on industrial buildings, commercial premises at estates and industrial parks and warehouses owned by Sedco as well as at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) and Palm Oil Industrial Cluster in Lahad Datu.
This will be for the duration of six months.
“The State government understands that businesses are impacted and need time to recover,” he said in his speech on ‘Sabah New Deal’ yesterday.
Shafie also said that to reduce the financial burden of SMEs with Sedco loans, the State Government had agreed with the decision of the agency to postpone payment for the loans for a period of six months.
Additionally, Shafie also announced a RM20 million grant to upgrade the Rural Micro and Cottage Industry.
He said that there were many people involved in micro and cottage industry in rural Sabah that produces quality products on a small scale.
He said that this group of people needed assistance to improve their production as well as overall quality of the product they produced.
“This includes the aspect of processing, storage, packaging and labelling as well as logistics and online marketing under the initiative “Buy Sabah Products,” he said.
He added that the grants are coordinated and managed by the Industrial Development and Research Department under the Trade and Industry Ministry.