By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Sept 12: The federal government has allocated RM20 million to the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to promote domestic economy which has been battered by Covid-19 pandemic, revealed its Minister Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi.
He said with the allocation, his ministry has been embarking to promote Malaysian products and to encourage Malaysian consumers to buy local goods.
“RM20 million has been set aside for the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to implement several programmes, especially with two major ones, such as the ‘Buy Malaysian Products’ and ‘Malaysia Sales’ campaigns.
“This allocation is for us to promote these programmes on a big scale, which has been launched by Prime Minister Tan Sr Muhyiddin Yassin at KLCC in the middle of July.
“After that we have launched the programmes all over the country,” Nanta told reporters at his ministry’s high tea with the media at a hotel here today.
Earlier in his speech, Nanta advised Malaysian consumers to buy Malaysia products as their standards are of international standard.
“This will help our economy to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
On the other hand, he also advised consumers not to overspent on unnecessary things.
“But if you need to buy, please buy Malaysian products as it will reduce the outflow of revenue. And during this National and Malaysia Day celebration, let’s be more patriotic and buy Malaysian made goods,” he said.
On related a issue, Nanta who is also Kapit MP revealed that Sarawak has the lion’s share of the RM150 million allocation of the federal government for the standardisation pricing programmes as it was allocated with RM83 million to subside items such as LPG gas, petrol and diesel, rice, sugar and cooking oil
Meanwhile Nanta thanked the local media fraternity as they have helped his ministry to relay crucial messages to the masses especially during MCO which was triggered by Covid-19 pandemic.
At the function, Nanta also announced an allocation of RM10,000 each to the Federation of Sarawak Journalists Association (FSJA) and Kuching Division Journalists Association (KDJA) and RM5,000 to Pertubuhan Wartawan Bebas Kuching (Pewarta).
Present at the function was state director of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Stanley Tan.-DayakDaily
