by SHAFIQQUL ALIFF / pic by BERNAMA

BANKING institutions, especially financing agencies, should not take legal actions against small traders and entrepreneurs who fail to repay loans to help them recover.

Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar (picture; right) said banks should give entrepreneurs some breathing space with the recent opening of the country’s borders which could give them a chance to bounce back after the pandemic and revive the country’s economy.

“We do not at present have any data on whether entrepreneurs are still affected or not since the reopening of the country’s borders.

“But for me, this is the time and opportunity for entrepreneurs to rise again so we should give them this period to recover and not bother them for the time being.

“If there are entrepreneurs appealing to restructure their financing payments, we need to help them to bounce back,” he said after launching the MyMall digital platform yesterday.

Noh said the MyMall platform was his ministry’s initiative in ensuring the development of an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem and ascertaining charges to entrepreneurs and buyers were adjusted to a minimum compared to other private apps without any hidden charges.

He said the new platform will combine the four e-commerce platforms — namely ODELA, Public, Angsana Virtual Mall and WarongKu — further helping informal, micro, small and medium entrepreneurs to expand their business markets at a lower cost.

“The merger will create a wider market for the products of the local entrepreneurs and offer more choices to consumers.

“Additionally, promotions for these four platforms will also be consolidated under one brand that will save costs,” he said.

The development of MyMall will be implemented in four phases.

Phase 1 involves initial integration for all four platforms combined under one roof through Single Sign-on method.

Subsequent phases will see the platform improved where all transactions including payments and updates of products will be included.

“It will also act as an information centre on funding, training or capacity building, marketing and the implementation of entrepreneurial psychometric tests that will make the platform a ‘super app’ which offers access to various entrepreneurial services.

“The first phase is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2023 at the latest,” Noh said.

He added that his ministry was expecting a 20% increase in entrepreneurs in the first year of the platform’s implementation regardless of informal, micro, small or medium entrepreneurs.