KUALA LUMPUR: The Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package's (Prihatin) Wage Subsidy Programme launched in March has helped over 1.4 million people in the country keep their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri said it was one of Prihatin's programmes that had shown results so far.
"It has assisted 213,688 employers and maintained 1.46 million jobs and, at the same time, reduced unemployment," he told the Dewan Negara yesterday.
Rahim added that the effects of various aid measures offered under the Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana), which was a continuation of Prihatin introduced in June, had yet to be seen.
"This is because it had just been announced and its implementation is still at an early stage. Therefore, the effectiveness of the initiatives can be measured only in few more months.
"The government has set up the Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit Between National Agencies (Laksana) under the Finance Ministry. It serves to monitor and evaluate every initiative under the Penjana and Prihatin packages and will announce its implementation performance from time to time," he added.
Rahim was answering an oral question by Senator Datuk Razali Idris, who had asked the finance minister to state the success of Penjana, which had more than 40 initiatives worth RM35 billion to restore the country's economy impacted by the virus.
Penjana was launched by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on June 5. Out of the 40 initiatives, 11 worth RM13.2 billion were for the people, 14 worth RM14.7 billion were allocated to the trade sector, and 15 at a cost of RM7.1 billion were meant for the economic sector.