Datuk David Gurupatham, Pengasas Bersama Industries Unite, membincangkan jurang sokongan kerajaan, akses bantuan yang realistik, dan strategi membina ketahanan eksport PKS dalam menghadapi kenaikan tarif AS.
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00:00Susulan sesi Parlimen Khas berkaitan perang tarif dan kesan terhadap Malaysia,
00:04Persatuan Perusahaan Kecil dan Sederhana Malaysia Sementar menggesa kerajaan merujuk semula beberapa dasar yang dikatakan akan bawa kepada kenaikan kos terhadap PKS.
00:13Apabila tarif berlaku, PKS Malaysia yang bergantung kepada rantai yang bekalan ekspor dilihat terjejas dari segi kos input sekaligus mengecilkan majlis mereka.
00:21Dan sudah bersedia dan telah untuk bantu kita fahami situasi ini adalah Datuk David Gurupatem, merupakan Industries Unite Co-Founder,
00:29Saya ingin ucapkan terima kasih Datuk Keren Sibu lakukan masa bersama kami dan izinkan saya berbahasa Inggeris.
00:34Firstly, Datuk, we want to talk about the maybe government supports.
00:39What are some of the gaps that we need to address as the PM speech emphasises supporting affected exporters, particularly SMEs, from your perspective?
00:47What are the specific gaps in current government interventions that fail to address the real on-ground struggles of SME exporter facing the US tarif hikes?
00:59I think the first thing that we have to be very concerned about is the exclusion of non-exporters.
01:05So, currently, if you look at the support, it's for the SMEs or companies that are involved in exporting.
01:13However, we must realise that the supply chain isn't just about exporters.
01:18So, domestic sectors such as logistics, retail, and F&B face rising input costs due to tariffs but lack targeted aid.
01:27So, in other words, their costs are going to go up.
01:30They're not exporters, SMEs, in this business, but their costs are going to go up.
01:34There seems to be a gap there that needs to be addressed.
01:39The other is, of course, regulatory burdens.
01:42Currently, you know, obviously, this happened suddenly and the government kind of got caught by surprise by this very, you know, it's very imposing sanction in a way.
01:55But we have to also rationalise our previous policies that we have planned for.
02:01And one of the main things I think that affect SMEs are the SST expansions or possible SST expansions and also local council fees.
02:13I mean, these are sort of existential issues for SMEs because SST, as you know, affects the margins as well.
02:22So, if we are expecting margins for a lot of these SMEs to come down, then perhaps one of the considerations temporarily or for the short term might be looking at whether we want to expand SST charges at the moment.
02:36because that remains unaddressed.
02:39Of course, the other thing is something that we have been facing for some time now, which is labour shortages, right?
02:44The restrictions on foreign worker hiring, especially in sectors like tourism and logistics.
02:51So, one, it worsens the operational chain.
02:54And second, it increases the costs for these SMEs.
02:57I understand that we want to move away from reliance on foreign workers.
03:01But we've got to look at re-evaluating these policies in light of the current situation that we have.
03:10Yeah?
03:11And we want to make sure the current situation is the realistic pathways.
03:16And then talking about realistic access versus policy promises,
03:20many SMEs find it difficult to access government aid due to bureaucratic red tape.
03:25How confident are you that the promise support mechanism will be realistically accessible and effective for smaller non-Burinputra or rural-based SMEs?
03:36You know, we have been talking about this for many years, including during the COVID times,
03:41where, you know, industries unite.
03:43and we have been calling, you know, for more engagement on this,
03:48because whenever there's a crisis, the people at the bottom who are unrecorded
03:53because they haven't, you know, registered with a certain agency or their bank accounts are not in order
03:58or they're not paying taxes and things like that properly
04:01because they don't have access to a lot of information
04:04or people who have no access to a lot of information.
04:06A lot of these people get left out of the support system.
04:08And we have to look at these industries, not just in terms of the exporters,
04:12but also the supply chains and all the smaller SMEs that support these exporters.
04:17So we can't look at it in isolation.
04:19And these bureaucratic hurdles are actually extremely high in Malaysia,
04:24especially in those categories, right?
04:27And it disproportionately affects,
04:28and this not just disproportionately affects the lower part of the SMEs,
04:33but also the rural and non-rural part of SMEs
04:38and even to a large extent the non-Bhumiputra SMEs that are lacking in resources
04:45and also the issues, secondary issues such as compliance, right?
04:51So before you can get any money or before you can get any support,
04:55credit guarantees and things like that,
04:57there are a lot of compliance issues that are required.
05:01and it's harder.
05:03These are the stumbling blocks.
05:04So you can say, yes, we have allocated this.
05:07But then when you come downstream
05:08and you have all these compliance issues that these SMEs face,
05:14bureaucratic issues, length of time to process applications, delays,
05:21this is the real world that we are talking about.
05:23We're not talking about policy right now,
05:24but the real world SME, the director that steps in asking for this assistance
05:32is not going to work out so easily and quickly.
05:36And we need to move quickly because we have a very short timeframe.
05:40And I urge the government to start looking at SMEs
05:43and looking at this kind of support,
05:46you know, looking at how we can have like a one-stop shop,
05:50how we can streamline the process to make it accessible,
05:54how we can make approvals and, you know, the drawdowns a lot faster.
05:59Yeah.
06:00These are the critical parts of this scheme that is going to be very important.
06:05It's no good just announcing $1.5 billion
06:08if that money cannot come right down and come right down very quickly.
06:13Yes.
06:14This is a very essential part that you have just listed
06:17in order for us to boost the SMEs beyond survival.
06:22And there's a call to build SME export resilience,
06:25but many SMEs are struggling just to survive.
06:28How should the government balance short-term survival support
06:30with long-term resilience building policies?
06:34I think in the short term, the issue will be liquidity.
06:38and access to capital because if you're looking at exporters
06:46and even if there is, I don't think we're going to go to zero tariff.
06:50It's going to affect definitely margins and the ability to do business.
06:57So, number one, there must be confidence.
07:00So, if you try to walk to a pasar malam
07:02and you only got RM5 in your wallet, it will affect your confidence.
07:07So, the first thing that we need to do to address these issues with the SMEs
07:11is to give them confidence.
07:14Making announcements are not good enough.
07:16So, I think the first thing we need to do is start looking at giving them,
07:21for example, zero interest loans for the short term, right,
07:25so they can access borrowings.
07:26because once you can access borrowings,
07:29you have time to plan out your strategies and, you know, to repay
07:34because this is something quite sudden.
07:35So, it will be great if SMEs can have short-term zero interest loans
07:42and probably even deferred payments like what we did during COVID.
07:47We suggested, you know, that bank, we suggested twice for bank moratoriums.
07:53We had a big tussle with the government, but eventually we got the bank moratoriums.
07:58But the bank moratoriums have a lot of businesses come out of COVID
08:02and we're doing well because people need that liquidity.
08:05People need that short-term liquidity.
08:06And Malaysians, we will work hard.
08:08We will pay.
08:08We just need some time.
08:10And so, that is why, number one, if we can get some zero interest loans,
08:13if we can get some deferred payments, we can work with a bank,
08:16the government can help us work with a bank.
08:19In the long run, we'll rationalize everything.
08:21It will be a lot easier, yeah?
08:22And then, in terms of long-term resilience, you know, we need grants for digitalization.
08:28I agree with the government on this.
08:30Digitalization is the way forward.
08:31I mean, you just have to look at China as an example,
08:34and we can't live if we don't do that.
08:37We need a bigger push to it, and everything requires money.
08:41So, we must find a solution because some very intelligent people out there in government,
08:46they need to figure this out.
08:48Because with digitalization comes automation, right?
08:53So, for all of this, we also need good broadband strategies, good broadband networks.
08:58and you can see the mess that we are in on that.
09:02I mean, I'm just going to say it.
09:03I'm going to put it out there as where we are in terms of connectivity.
09:07And unless we address these issues, you know, in a very serious manner,
09:11we're never, you know, there's no point talking about digitalization and automation and all of that.
09:15So, we need emphasis on those kind of long-term priorities.
09:21And the other is prioritizing immediate working capital injections while facing resilient investments.
09:28About 12 to 18 months would be a balance.
09:31So, in other words, I mean, you can come in with these conditions and say,
09:34well, if you implement this, if you implement that,
09:36then we can work out a longer period, we can help you fund this,
09:41and, you know, you can have a balance of both, yeah?
09:45So, you have to have a short-term, as I said, liquidity problem, zero-interest loans,
09:50but in the long-term and for resilience, we need grants,
09:53just like we need longer-term loans and better repayment strategies, yeah?
10:00Dato, when you talk about also regional corporations,
10:03which markets realistically present the most viable alternatives to the U.S. from Malaysian SMEs,
10:10how do we avoid repeating over-dependence at this time with regional giants like China or India?
10:17What are the best strategy or approach that we can apply?
10:22I think number one is, you know, if you look at ASEAN,
10:28compared to 1995 and now we are in 2025,
10:31we are a very sophisticated trading bloc as a group.
10:36We are one of the largest traders with China and, in fact, the rest of the world.
10:41And if you look at the size of the population of ASEAN,
10:44we have a good, strong population.
10:46We have a young population, unlike China.
10:50and we have the benefits of being between two growing giants, both India and China.
10:58And so we should be looking more at coordinated approaches when it comes to growing, growth.
11:07In other words, coordinated approaches as to investments, SME, and things like that.
11:12What we are doing and why we are going to find it difficult to compete with blocs like India and China is because they are one.
11:18Like China, you have one party or the elites that are not the elites, rather the top level.
11:25And everything gets translated down and it's out in the streets.
11:28Everybody follows the same policy.
11:30But when you are fractured and each country is fighting with each other for trade, for investments,
11:38and we are competing with it, I'm not saying that's bad.
11:41But at some point, we have to have a coordinated approach on this in terms of looking at us as a regional bloc.
11:48And we also, the governments need to foster better coordination and cooperation with SMEs across these countries
11:58because we are resource-rich, we are technical-rich, we have a very developed,
12:02some countries have very developed banking sectors, we have different expertise in ASEAN.
12:07And the governments, we must find a way to get us to collaborate.
12:11We must be able to collaborate.
12:12We must have SMEs that are able to cooperate.
12:16So, for example, if a Malaysian company wanted to go to Indonesia or Thailand,
12:19they should not have to face different struggles.
12:22You know, we should have central sort of systems, one-stop shops for ASEAN's priorities for ASEAN travellers,
12:31for ASEAN businesses, and especially SMEs.
12:34So that kind of cooperation is very important.
12:37Now, industries could, like Cementa, they've talked about new licensing requirements and competition policies,
12:50and I agree.
12:52I mean, we can't be looking at licensing as bureaucratic tools,
12:56especially when you want to talk about free trade, free movement of capital and things like that, right?
13:03So bureaucracy is always the enemy of business, right?
13:07And the other is, you know, you can't have competition policies that are different for different countries.
13:11We have to standardise these things.
13:13So on that basis, I agree with Cementa.
13:16Now, you see, the other thing is also one, Miti has engaged with U.S. officials.
13:22And we know about it.
13:24A lot of the grassroots SMEs, they're still clueless.
13:29They don't know what's happening.
13:30And don't forget, they may not be exporters, but they are a crucial supplier of the supply chain.
13:36We always forget about the supply chain leading to these exporters.
13:39We need to focus on them.
13:41We need to make them aware of what's going on.
13:43We need to support the people who support these companies, right?
13:49And so what you're going to have is you are going to have supply chain issues because of this tariff,
13:58not directly, but there's also indirect issues, which is there are going to be tariffs in other countries as well
14:05that are going to affect these suppliers of the exporters.
14:09That's what I mean by the supply chain disruption.
14:11I don't see anything that was said in parliament or it was discussed.
14:17That part of it, which is a crucial component, was not discussed.
14:21It was not in the statement.
14:22So SMEs have to be worried because it's not just the exporters.
14:26There's a whole host of support SMEs that are going to, that also have supply chains,
14:33but have another problem, which is the markets to which they are having access to, also have tariffs.
14:39So you have to look at it in a very...
14:43And I think that's where the gap is with what parliament has done.
14:47Parliament has not looked at this.
14:49This is very, very crucial.
14:51And I can assure you that if we don't deal with this, we're going to have very, very big problems.
14:56All right, definitely we have to take this very seriously, Datuk.
15:00As you can see, the high tarif is affecting globally, especially the vulnerable group.
15:06And we hope, thank you for also dive deep, helping us understand what are some of the malicious preparation
15:11for the effect of the exporters, especially the SME.
15:14What can we do to save, support and protect them moving forward?
15:17Again, I want to say thank you very much to Datuk David Guru Potom, Industries Unite co-founder.
15:21And definitely all of our discussion here will be featured in astroawani.com
15:24across all social media platforms.
15:26Stay tuned as Niaga Awani will be taking a short break and we'll be right back.