Kuala lumpur: The Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (KUSKOP) will organise the Hebatkan Perniagaan Malaysia Town Hall in every state to gather grassroots feedback and convey government policies and initiatives to entrepreneurs and small traders. Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister Steven Sim said the move was important to ensure the voices of entrepreneurs were taken into account in the decision-making process, as well as to provide explanations of government policies.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the 2026 National Hawkers and Petty Traders Consultative Meeting, which involved representatives from state governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as hawkers' and petty traders' associations, decided that KUSKOP should organise the Hebatkan Perniagaan Malaysia Town Hall at the state level. 'We want to hear the voices, suggestions and views of entrepreneurs at the state level while conveying KUSKOP's policies to entrepreneurs and our stakeholders,' Sim told reporters after chairing the meeting today.

He said the Hebatkan Perniagaan Malaysia portal, which will be officially launched in early June, would serve as a one-stop hub for information related to financing, capacity-building programmes, government policies as well as the performance of the Power Up 10,000 initiative. Sim said the portal was established following feedback from hawkers' and petty traders' associations, which faced difficulties obtaining information on assistance and programmes for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Touching on concerns among the MSME sector over operating costs, he said the government had so far not made any decision to reduce fuel subsidies under BUDI95, and he would bring the position to maintain BUDI95 to the Cabinet level to ensure the interests of MSMEs continue to be protected. 'As the minister responsible for the entrepreneurial sector, I will state the position that BUDI95 should be maintained for now and ensure improvements in the implementation of the diesel subsidy so that we can assist entrepreneurs using diesel vehicles,' he said.

Meanwhile, he said UDA Holdings Berhad (UDA), an agency under KUSKOP, would provide rental discounts of up to 20 per cent to MSME business premises tenants under its management, in addition to offering a moratorium on rental arrears of up to three months to companies facing cash flow problems. He said UDA would also absorb all increases in service costs without passing them on to tenants, involving about 1,000 business premises nationwide, with the cost implications estimated at RM12.5 million until the end of this year.