Industry Dialogue: Post Pandemic Recovery

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit a lot of individuals and businesses hard, especially financially. This has prompted a lot of local industry and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to move their businesses online since the start of the Movement Control Order (MCO), in March 2020.

The Selangor State Government has been working on promoting industrial digitalisation for years. With the re-imposition of the Conditional MCO in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur that started on 14 October, the push for a more digitalised workforce could not come at a better time.

Statistics from the Department of Statistics (DOS) show that 98.5%, or 907,065 of the companies registered in Malaysia are SMEs, with 19.8% hailing from Selangor. SMEs contribute 38.3% of the national GDP, and 66.2% of job production.

From a government that cares about the Rakyat and the economy, YB Dato Teng Chang Khim, Chairman of Standing Committees for Investment, Industry & Commerce and SME of the Selangor State Government, has produced a series of video interviews with the industry and MSMEs’ players.

This series aims to recognise the contributions of industry and MSME, and to encourage dialogue between the state government and the industry. It will showcase the 10 sectors in Selangor, the challenges they faced during the pandemic, their post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery plans, and how the Selangor State Government’s SME-friendly initiatives have supported them so the economy can further grow.

These 10 sectors include science and technology, retail, agriculture and fishing; logistics; tourism; F&B; e-Commerce; film industry; property development, and beauty industry. Individuals interviewed include:

1. Datin Winnie Loo – Founder of leading hair salon ‘A Cut Above’
   
2. Dato’ Ho Hon Sang – Chairman of the Selangor branch of Real Estate & Housing Developer’s Association (REHDA Selangor)
   
3. Chia Tian Hee– President of the Sekinchan Fishermen’s Association
   
4. Dato’ Kamil Othman - Former Director-General of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS)
   
5. Mr. Ong Shen Loong - Managing Director of Lalamove
   
6. Dato’ Ng Wan Peng - COO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
   

The video project also serves as a communication platform for these industries to share their challenges as well as visions ahead. The first video in the series, titled “Covid-19 and Science & Technology in Malaysia”, will premiere on 20 October (Tuesday) at 8pm. New videos in the series will be posted weekly.

The video series can be viewed at http://bit.ly/OfficialTengChangKhim, and the schedule may be found below:

Video Series Schedule