Businesses brace for fallout from Covid-19 restrictions
SMALL and medium enterprises (SME), which are already bogged down by rising costs after the Covid-19 outbreak, are bracing for difficult times ahead as a result of the movement-control order, said Michael Kang.
Members have been grappling with cost issues since the Covid 19 outbreak, said the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs’ Association of Malaysia president.
“The cost has already gone up since February, after Covid-19. It’s already up around 10 to 20%,” he said.
Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) president Ter Leong Yap said the movement control will inevitably cause public inconvenience and business disruptions, but it is a tough decision that has to be made in the best interest of protecting public health.
Businesses are bound to be hit hard by the decision and must deal with it, Ter said.
“It is a short-term pain for implementing a more forceful containment of the Covid-19 outbreak rather than to let it prolong or worsen and cost a lot of human lives,” he said when contacted.
However, he said, the primary concern is to ensure that there is enough stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly the production and supply of masks and sanitisers for front-line healthcare workers and also to the public at reasonable prices.
From tomorrow, all business and religious activities in the country will cease to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a special address last night.
“The government has decided to restrict all movements in the whole country from March 18-31,” he said in a national TV broadcast.
“This step will be taken under the Control of the Spread of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and the Police Act 1967.
“I am aware that some will be inconvenienced by these actions but this must be done to stop the spread of Covid-19.” – THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
Virus could bankrupt most airlines by end of May
SYDNEY (Bloomberg): The coronavirus pandemic will bankrupt most airlines worldwide by the end of May unless governments and the industry take coordinated steps to avoid such a situation, an aviation consultant warned.
Many airlines have probably been driven into technical bankruptcy or substantially breached debt covenants already, Sydney-based consultancy CAPA Centre for Aviation warned in a statement Monday (March 16).
Carriers are depleting cash reserves quickly because their planes are grounded and those that aren’t are flying more than half empty, it said.
“Coordinated government and industry action is needed – now – if catastrophe is to be avoided, ” CAPA said.
Otherwise,”emerging from the crisis will be like entering a brutal battlefield, littered with casualties, ” it said.
Most of the biggest carriers in the US, China and Middle East are likely to survive because of government help or support from their owners, CAPA said.
Airlines have been among the biggest corporate casualties of the virus outbreak as the coronavirus grinds air traffic to a halt. Carriers from American Airlines Group Inc to Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd have slashed capacity, while some like Sweden’s SAS AB have temporarily laid off most staff.
Flybe, Europe’s biggest regional airline, has already collapsed. Carriers could face as much as US$113 billion in lost revenue this year, according to the International Air Transport Association. – Bloomberg
MALAY MAIL / THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT / BLOOMBERG
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