US tariff: Govt to boost financing scheme for SMEs by RM1b

The government agreed to raise government guarantees under the Business Financing Guarantee Scheme by RM1 billion to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) affected by the US tariff announcement.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said this is to help the businesses secure loans from commercial banks, adding that the government also approved RM500 million for soft loan facilities offered through development financial institutions.

“The government will continue to monitor the latest developments and is prepared to provide targeted assistance to SMEs that are directly affected.

“The US reciprocal tariff has a negative impact on global supply chains and trade, especially for SMEs, and is disruptive to Asean economic stability,” he said at a special Dewan Rakyat meeting today.

Meanwhile, Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said amid global economic volatility, the country needs to focus more on generating domestic economic activities, especially development projects and direct investments.

“In this regard, the government will focus efforts on accelerating the implementation of approved projects, especially flood mitigation projects, repair of dilapidated schools, and construction of clinics.

“To expedite implementation, the government will streamline procurement policies and procedures - especially those involving small contractors in G1-G4 categories,” he said.

The government, he added, has agreed to increase the limit for procurement by quotation from RM1 million to RM3 million as well as the limit for procurement through balloting from RM100,000 to RM200,000, especially to speed up maintenance and repair works for dilapidated schools and clinics, among others.

Anwar said that to accelerate the pre-implementation process of projects, the capacity of technical agencies will be expanded with the introduction of new approaches, such as allowing the implementation of federal government projects to proceed on state government land.

He also said special emphasis will be given to realising approved investments.

On April 2, US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on imports from dozens of countries, with Malaysia being imposed a tariff of 24 percent. However, this rate has been paused for 90 days with the imposition of a baseline tariff of 10 percent.

- Bernama

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