On 28 June 2021, the Government unveiled the National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH) under the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
PEMULIH’s RM150b assistance package focuses on three main areas:
- Continuing the focus on the PrihatinRakyat agenda
- Supporting businesses
- Increasing vaccination rates
2020 has unwittingly proved the significance of financial and non-financial risks in assessing resilience. Sustainable companies are seen to be able to stand through the economic turmoil with higher resistance, or at least did not deteriorate as badly as others. Due to this, more heads are turning towards the importance of the environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) criteria in the investment decision-making process and portfolio management.
ESG has emerged as an area of focus for governments, regulators, financial institutions and commercial organisations around the world even before the coronavirus spread around the globe like a wildfire. In Malaysia, Bursa Malaysia in partnership with FTSE Russell launched the FTSE4Good ESG Index in 2014 with the aim of providing more visibility and profiling of ESG-compliant companies. Bursa Malaysia has also came out with the Sustainability Reporting Guide in 2015 to guide listed issuers on how to embed sustainability in their organisation and help to identify, evaluate and manage economic, environmental and social risks and opportunities.
The revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (“MCCG”) issued in April 2017 further enhances the ecosystem for sustainable and responsible investment in Malaysia. In November 2019, the Securities Commission of Malaysia launched the Sustainable and Responsible Investment Roadmap which aims to chart the role of the capital market in driving Malaysia’s sustainable development. The newly updated MCCG 2021 also addresses the urgent need for companies to manage ESG risks and opportunity with emphasis on the need for collective action by boards and senior management.
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HSBC Group has projected Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2021 at 4.1 per cent compared with an estimated 6.7 per cent earlier this year.
Its Asian economics research co-head Frederic Neumann said the recent challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic was restraining domestic demand growth for Malaysia.
However, Neumann highlighted that the effect was actually a temporary drag, and HSBC has a forecast of 5.4 per cent growth for Malaysia’s GDP in 2022.
Hotel Equatorial Penang in Bukit Jambul is reopening on June 28 as a Covid-19 vaccination centre (PPV) after shuttering on March 31.
Some 1,600 economic frontliners, especially those in the state’s business and industrial sectors, are expected to be inoculated there daily.
Penang tourism exco Yeoh Soon Hin today visited the hotel with Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau chief executive Ashwin Gunasekeran.
Yeoh said the state government will look into the feasibility of more hotels being used as PPVs to ramp up Penang’s vaccination drive.
EY has released its Special Tax Alert No. 5/2021 on the National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH). This issue covers:
- Key allocations of PEMULIH
- Tax deduction for expenditure incurred in relation to vaccination facilities
- Wage Subsidy Programme 4.0
- HRDF levy exemption
- PenjanaKerjaya 3.0
