KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — The Malaysia Shopping Malls Association has urged members to work with their tenants and retailers for realistic and win-win solutions to reduce monthly overheads and/or enhance turnover as suggested in the 2020 Economic Stimulus Package to reduce the impact of Covid-19.
Interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when announcing the stimulus package yesterday, called on industry players such as hotels and shopping malls to offer discounts and reduce rentals to their tenants respectively, in the spirit of shared responsibility to overcome the current challenges.
Covid-19 is the official name for the 2019 novel coronavirus given by the World Health Organisation.
The association said the issue can also be tackled in ways other than rental reduction, such as direct marketing assistance and closer joint collaboration on sales and promotions, which will increase footfall and sales turnover, thereby directly spurring the economic cycle.
“We further reiterate that shopping mall members will need to analyse and monitor data and trends and to curate appropriate and targeted action plans,” it said in a statement here today.
Also, as the impact differs for different categories of business operations, mall members need to tailor a different assistance programme that is most suitable and for the best results, it said.
“We recognise that each mall has its individual and unique business environment and such measures have to be tailored and implemented on a case-by-case basis.
“We are confident that shopping malls will evolve and enhance ourselves to cater to the constantly changing trends and business environment, and coupled with close collaboration with our retailers, we will remain resilient and overcome the hurdles together,” said the association.
Among the measures in the RM20 billion stimulus package that have a direct impact on shopping malls are: 15 per cent discount in monthly electricity bills from April to September 2020, option for all employees to reduce Employee Provident Fund (EPF) contribution by four per cent to seven per cent from April to December 2020, and tax deduction of up to RM300,000 on renovation and refurbishment cost. — Bernama
