COVID-19: Business not affected if delivery system works well - Dr Mahathir

The former Prime Minister said the situation ensured there were no barriers for traders to continue doing business even from home.

"Delivery system like Grab and others must be encouraged and people must be well trained including ensuring that they themselves are not affected.

"In a good delivery system, what's important is to market more. If you don't have a good delivery system but may produce something very good, you can't sell it to your customers.

"So, the key is a good delivery system. Once you have that, everyone will be able to market anything like cooking dishes or improving something," he said during a video conference on the MyPerintis Facebook page on Monday.

A portal had reported that traders were likely to experience a 50 to 80 per cent drop in sales for three to six months due to COVID-19.

This includes the possibility that the supplier will not be able to supply the main item for six weeks, thus affecting the cash flow of the business.

Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir reminded the public to accept the reality of a decline in income faced by many today.

Therefore, he added, those who were losing their income should seek out new jobs and change their lifestyle to suit their current income.

"If you don't work in a hotel, but you are a chef and can cook in a home, you can do food business. If you are a cleaner, I think many people need cleaning services now and these are all new jobs," he said.

The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) had previously predicted that nearly 100,000 Malaysians would lose their jobs if COVID-19 continued until the end of the year.

The number of those dismissed as a result of economic impacts brought by the virus was also reported to be twice as high as 40,000 people who lost their jobs last year.