At a press conference today, several business owners representing the industry voiced out their difficulty in earning an income, urging the government to give them more assistance instead of leaving them to fend for themselves.

Suresh Naidu, a spokesman for the representatives, said SOPs requiring social distancing made hosting events economically unviable with only a small number allowed to gather.

He said the event industry had been impacted for almost a year without any clear directive from the government to assist them.

“The government has not come up with any plans to solve problems affecting the event industry,” he said, adding that wedding planners, musicians, catering and equipment companies were badly affected.

Suresh urged the government to review the existing SOPs and allow more small-scale events to be held.

“We hope the National Security Council (MKN) can loosen up the SOPs for this industry.

“We have exhausted all of our savings to pay the staff their salary and rental.”

He said some business owners had also been forced to sell their equipment used for events, such as power generators, to survive.

He said most banks viewed them as high-risk borrowers and would often reject their applications for financing.

He urged the government to extend the loan moratorium to those in the event industry.

Business owner U Ratnam expressed disappointment over the lack of allocations for the events industry in the national budget.

He said the lack of financial support in the 2021 budget showed that the government had forgotten about them despite the industry generating a huge revenue for the country in the past.

“The event industry contributed RM3.9 billion in 2017,” he added.

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