KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has approved a total of RM12.84 billion under the wage subsidy programme (PSU) as of March 26 this year, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said.
A total of 322,177 employers and 2.64 million employees had benefitted from PSU 1.0, said Tengku Zafrul.
In the ministry's weekly Laksana report, he said the approved applications under PSU1.0, which was announced previously under Prihatin and Penjana packages, amounted to RM12.84 billion.
He said as for Kita Prihatin package, PSU2.0 had disbursed RM1.11 billion as of March 26, benefitting 72,875 employers and 626,955 employees.
For Skills and Skills Upgrading Programme, Tengku Zafrul said a total of 137,290 participants had been approved to join the programme compared to 137,075 participants approved a week earlier.
He said the list of courses in demand can be viewed through the Ministry of Finance's website.
Applicants can also visit other government agencies' websites to obtain information on the courses offered.
The agencies include Human Resources Development Fund Bhd (HRDF), the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (Medac), Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara), East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECER), Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA), Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) and the Ministry of Higher Education.
Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said a total of 132,118 employees had secured employments under the Hiring Incentive and Training Programme as of March 26.
A week earlier, the number of individuals who had secured employments stood at 131,568.
He said the major industries and sectors involved include manufacturing as well as wholesale and retail trade.
The government, meanwhile, approved 7,266 applications for RM1.37 billion loans under the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) initiative of the National Economic Regeneration Plan (Penjana) as of March 19.
Tengku Zafrul said the government had allocated RM2 billion under the programme, which gave priority to SMEs that had never received a loan from a bank before.