KUALA TERENGGANU: The government's assistance to entrepreneurs during the Movement Control Order (MCO) 1.0 last year, has not only enabled them to survive the challenging times, but some even managed to expand their businesses.

"My company received two government assistance during the MCO, namely, the Wage Subsidy Programme and the PenjanaKerjaya (Employment Recruitment Incentives Programme) under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA).

"The assistance, amounting to RM44,400 have been very helpful for my company's survival in retaining our eight existing employees as well as for the purchase of stock for workshop operations. The assistance is the company's 'lifeline' during challenging times of the MCO," she told Bernama today.

Her company, which was established in 2017, offers air conditioning services including installation and maintenance; electrical wiring as well repairs for cars, trucks and heavy machinery.

Her company, on top of retaining eight employees through the Wage Subsidy Programme during MCO, it also able to recruit four new employees to streamline operations.

Wan Norhayati said the recruitment of four new employees beginning next week was due to her company receiving several orders from customers involving vehicle repair work in workshops as well as wiring work at residential and commercial premises.

"It is true that businesses were affected up to 30 per cent during the last MCO as air conditioning maintenance at customers' homes, offices and commercial premises could not be carried out. As for vehicle repair at workshops, we had to rotate employee schedules and follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set.

"However, the situation is improving now and we hope our new employees will further improve the quality of the company's services," said Wan Norhayati who also benefited from the Bumiputera Enterprise Enhancement Programme (BEEP) under SME Corp and the Business Advancement and Standard Development (BASE) programme under MARA.

Meanwhile, for the owner of Nabz Food Industri Sdn Bhd, Noraini Zakaria, the government assistance received during the MCO has helped her looking after the welfare of the company's five employees.

"There was a drop of more than 50 per cent in company's frozen food product sales. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, my company relied heavily on demand from school hostels and government-organised events, as well as supermarkets and expos.

"Fortunately for us, there is a Wage Subsidy Programme, which helped the company to pay employees' salaries during the three months that we had to close factory operation in Bukit Tunggal, Kuala Nerus. However, we did not just sat down doing nothing. What we did was to produce Sarawak layer cake for sales to cover losses due to inability do business as usual," she said.

The company, which was established in 2002, produces a variety of frozen and ready-to-eat 'pau' (bun) including kaya, chocolate, chicken and sardines filling and the products have successfully penetrated the market in Agro Bazaars, Xiri supermarkets, farmers' markets and food trucks in several locations in Terengganu.

Noraini can now breathe a sigh of relief with recent reopening of the school sessions as demand from school canteen operators and hostels increased again and the latest development has convinced her to achieve the sales target of RM300,000 this year.

-- BERNAMA