According to the Entrepreneurship Development and Cooperatives Ministry in a Parliamentary written reply dated Nov 5, 2020, a total of 32,469 SMEs had folded since March 2020 when the movement control order (MCO) was first implemented to curb Covid-19. The Ministry, quoting statistics by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), said that 9,675 SMEs shut down operations during the first phase of the MCO from March 18 to June 9. Then a further 22,794 SMEs shut down during the recovery MCO that took place from June till September last year, with the highest figure recorded in August with a total of 17,800 SMEs.