The financial blow of the Coronavirus on businesses and events
PUCHONG: Government should take immediate action as most of the businesses are facing a huge loss due to COVID-19, said My Events International Founder/president, Shahul Hameed Dawood.
As events are cancelled because of COVID-19, event planning industry takes hit as it reduces incomes, lost revenue and growth.
In an exclusive interview with The Leaders Online today, Shahul reveals My Events International is facing a drastic financial blow due to massive cancellation for all the events due to coronavirus outbreak.
“We cancelled more than 13 events just in three months. This is the biggest lost that we are going through. We have lost approximately 10 million ringgit,” he said.
He said one of the toughest decision is to let go staffs who are working with them for very long years.
“We have no choice than cutting off the cost and also trying to reduce our loyal staffs,” he added.
He also suggested that the government should take immediate action to mitigate the current circumstances or a mechanism to help affected businesses.
“Countries abroad have taken measures such as stimulus package etc as a recovery plan. Besides stimulus package companies has mortgages with banks, obligatory payments to statutory bodies etc. should look into deferring all these payments”.
As more cases of coronavirus are confirmed globally, MyEvents feels the crimp caused by the outbreak as their clients are “pulling the plug” on contracts.
“Immediate action on this issue, or else all businesses will get into trouble and we are all stressed up more health wise than directly affected by coronavirus outbreak itself”.
“I want to stress that more people going to die due to financial stress than the virus and government must take drastic and fast measures to address this ..”
My Events International is a global event company which is based locally and operates globally as well.
The company operates globally in United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, China, Philippines and also Malaysia.
Shahul also said that ramifications of canceling or postponing events are wide-ranging, from mundane considerations about competition to potentially serious financial consequences for organizations, and the tens of thousands of people who work at events.
The ripple effects of all of the cancellations are felt by contractors who book gigs with event planning companies and many other businesses as well.
“This is affecting all our staffs abroad and locally. And I believe not just us but there are more business owners out there are at their wits end without a solution at hand. I hope the government will sit along with some bankers and figure out a solution or some compensation measure for affected businesses”.
“We cannot deny that all businesses are suffering, however stimulus package that the current government provided did not provide enough assistance” he said.
By: Hema Subramaniam
