PETALING JAYA: Incumbent finance minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said allocations for Chinese primary schools set aside in annual budgets had increased over the years, from RM85 million in 2020 to RM100 million next year.

He told Sin Chew Daily in an exclusive interview that the government would continue to support schools of different language streams, including SJKCs, and would continue to provide fair annual allocations to all schools.

He also said the 2023 Budget would provide various assistance programs to help the Malaysian Chinese community, including RM160 million for Chinese SME financing program, in addition to financing programs for Chinese new villages, SMEs and Chinese hawkers.

“We have set aside RM50 million for cooperatives to provide financing facility to Chinese SMEs, and RM97 million for Chinese new villages.”

Zafrul also said the Budget would provide RM9 billion allocations for strategic tourism-related sectors, along with various measures initiated by the tourism ministry to help Chinese travel operators.

In order to generate needs, Zafrul said the government would also provide incentives to domestic tourists to boost local tourism.

“I believe China will ease its ‘zero Covid’ policy from next year. There are many attractions in Kuala Selangor that will woo the Chinese tourists.”

Tengku Zafrul is also Barisan Nasional’s candidate for Kuala Selangor parliamentary seat.

“I believe BN’s over 60 years of track record will bring prosperity and stability to this country.

“I believe this will help BN win by a landslide in this election,” he concluded.