Agrobank Welcomes The National Recovery Plan And Committed To Support A Great Step Forward For Economic Growth In Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR – Agrobank welcomes the National Recovery Plan which was announced by YAB Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on 15 June 2021 as the Bank continues to support the Malaysian government and its customers to cope with the economic situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commenting on the announcement, Khadijah Iskandar, Covering President/ Chief Executive Officer of Agrobank said, the exit strategy which was unveiled yesterday to transition out of the COVID-19 crisis is designed in four phases shows a strong commitment by the Government to help the country to completely recover from the pandemic and to ensure all sectors gradually return to normal, where each phase will be based on the data from three threshold indicators to move from one phase to the next.
The first indicator is the situation of COVID-19 transmission in the community based on the number of daily cases of infection; the second indicator is the capacity of the public health system based on bed occupancy rate in intensive care units (ICU); and the third indicator is the level of protected population based on the percentage of completed vaccination.
Khadijah said, “The exit strategy outlined by the Government is well structured with reasonable time frame towards recovery of both health and economy sectors throughout the four phases, therefore proper execution and support from all Malaysian is significant to ensure nation gain victory from this global crisis.”
“Agrobank also welcomes the measure taken under the second phase, where economic activities will be opened in stages by allowing workers’ attendance of up to 80 per cent capacity of the premises. This will spur up the country’s economy especially the SMEs and it is timely since the announcement made yesterday was also coincide with Agrobank’s recovery plan to support our SME customers through various initiatives carried out by Agrobank ”, she added.
Since 2020, Agrobank has announced that the month of June as the Agrobank SME Month. The aim is to highlight the importance and strong contribution of SMEs particularly entrepreneurs in agri-businesses (agropreneurs) to the livelihoods, communities and economies through various programmes including a series of Agro-X on Astro Awani, a weekly episode of Cerita Agroprenuer Kita on Agrobank’s Youtube channel, Agrobank TV and also a webinar session, Dialog SME Sabah. This is held in conjunction with the International Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Day as designated by the United Nations on 27th June every year.
Khadijah commented further, “SME is the backbone of our economy. We believe that it is good to recognise their contribution to the economy and highlight how SME are coping with the changing business landscape and the National Recovery Plan has addressed this. As at May 2021, Agrobank has approved a total financing of RM174 million to 14,610 micro and SME custotmers under the Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA) Stimulus Package.”
“Agrobank will continue to support our customers together with the initiatives by the Government. As a financial institution that has always prioritised the well-being and advancement of people and communities in agriculture industry, it is our responsibility to help our customers who are facing with financial adversities and allow them to focus on other more critical areas of their livelihood so we can go out from this difficult situation together,” she added.
Khadijah also reiterates Agrobank is encouraging its affected customers to contact their respective branch officers or relationship managers to discuss possible solutions to overcome any financial challenges they may be facing.
“For customers who are still facing difficulty in paying their monthly instalment, Agrobank will continue to provide payment assistance and accept applications until the end of December 2021 under the Targeted Payment Financing Assistance (TPFA) programme. We are committed to assist our customers and the bank will consider the possibility of offering restructuring and rescheduling of financing and it would be open to both of our business and SME customers as well as individuals affected by the current situation,” she added.
Customers can call the bank’s customer contact centre at 1-300-88-2476 or visit the nearest branch to enquire more information on the assistance available. Customers can call the bank’s Contact Centre at 1300 88 2476 or email customer@agrobank.com.my, or contact their respective relationship officers or branches, or visit www.agrobank.com.my to enquire more information on the assistance available.
