KUCHING, Aug 7: No other states in Malaysia were able to deliver comparable amount of assistance as the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)-led government to the people amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is the view of Corporate Affairs Assistant Minister Abdullah Saidol when he said similar financial packages were never seen, especially in states under Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.
He said the Sarawak government’s capability in delivering these aid while continuing to grow the State’s infrastructural development was due to its prudent and efficient financial management.
“Since March 2020, the Sarawak government has delivered seven BKSS (Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang) packages with various assistance amounting to over RM5.3 billion to ease the burden of business communities, frontliners, B40 group and general public.
“Despite the challenges, the GPS-led State government has always planned and found ways to help all Sarawakians affected by the pandemic,” he said in a statement today.
In the recent BKSS 7.0, Saidol said the three measures were never decided unilaterally without consultation with relevant industry players and many business participants understood Sarawak’s financial constraints and priorities.
He said many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were relieved by the special one-off RM10,000 assistance whereby the State government has allocated about RM400 million to help over 40,000 eligible SMEs.
With that, he refuted Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen’s statement yesterday (Aug 5) criticising the latest assistance as “a drop in the ocean” and too little for some medium and large companies.
In response to that, Saidol said when DAP was government, it had failed to “put the money where its mouth is”.
“Eventually after 22 months in the federal government, it was proven that DAP is all talk and incapable of delivering,” he added. — DayakDaily
