KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 – Secretary-General Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan hopes the rakyat economy will recover soon tandem with the national index.

Describing how paramount it is for the people’s economy to bounce back, he said: “Will they ever manage their daily survival again? Will employment matching their tertiary education be made as a criteria to overcome unemployment?,” he said in his Twitter account today.

He was commenting on media report that the national economic growth was forecast to dip to 4.5 per cent compared with 6.0 per cent set by the World Bank last April.

The Bank’s senior economists Shakira Teh Sharifuddin said the downward trend is forecast amid rising Covid-19 which will hurt the economy in short term and the Movement Control Order (MCO) that suffocates its activity and shrinking consumers’ expenditure.

In this aspect, Ahmad says the government plays a leading role to assist the people’s economy by giving an automatic moratorium to the B40, M40 and the small and medium entrepreneurs.

He also cited that the people’s economy is more important during the MCO and their dire need is cash assistances, especially the B40 and some in M40 category who are now fell into the B40 income bracket.

“Apart from the moratorium, they also need rental cut, utilities discount, EPF withdrawal and others,” he said.

The Pontian MP also urges the respective agencies to provide necessary training to online entrepreneurs.