PETALING JAYA: While bosses heaved a sigh of relief over news that there would be no strict nationwide lockdown, an economist has raised concerns over the lack of an exit strategy from Covid-19.
Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said the decision, announced earlier today, was a big relief for the business community as they could continue operations.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had announced that stricter restrictions would be imposed for the economic and social sectors, but there would be no total lockdown as was done in March last year.
More details on the restrictions will be announced by senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob at a press conference tomorrow.
Shamsuddin told FMT that the business community was thankful to the government for a decision that would allow businesses to operate but under stricter SOPs.
“Stricter SOPs will not kill our businesses but if they decide to stop operations, then our business recovery will be difficult,” he added.
Furthermore, he said the statistics department had also warned in April that the inflation rate would be the highest since 2018 at 4.7%.
“It is worrying. If we are not careful, the inflation rate will go higher,” he said.
Shamsuddin added that bosses operating in Selangor have ordered some one million vaccines to prevent Covid-19 among their staff.
“We are trying our level best to reduce workplace clusters, that is why the private sector quickly ordered the vaccines,” he said.
Some of the companies with larger manpower have also ordered the vaccines although it costs RM380 per person. “This shows employers are being responsible in reducing workplace clusters,” he added.
Economist Carmelo Ferlito, however, said the government had made an announcement without going into details.
“They decided on something but left the details for tomorrow, leaving people in uncertainty,” he told FMT.
He added that with more details announced on Saturday, people and businesses may have little time to adjust to the new restrictions on Monday, leaving people in more confusion and frustration.
He also said the government does not seem to have a clear exit strategy to curb Covid-19.
“Without any clear exit strategy, they have been implementing lockdown after lockdown,” he said.
Malaysia is now undergoing its third MCO since May 12.
He said the government needs to plan or invest to strengthen vaccination capacity and to step up mass and frequent testing.
“We are not releasing more data for reassessments, research and better targeted policies,” he added.
Unless these measures are put in place, Ferlito said, the country was wasting time as nothing new will come out of it, further impacting the business, health, education and employment sectors.
“The government needs a real strategy to come out of this. They cannot be sending some vague messages that are not bringing rapid solutions to the emergency we are living in,” he pointed out.
Malaysia has been recording over 6,000 Covid cases for the past three days, with death rates of between 40 and 50 per day. - FMT
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