Economists see Johor gaining from weekend change

 

It makes economic sense for Johor to put its working days in sync with those of the west coast and neighbouring countries, say two economists.

GEORGE TOWN: Two economists foresee improvements in Johor’s economy if the state changes its weekend rest days from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday.

Yeah Kim Leng of Sunway University and Barjoyai Bardai of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak said it made economic sense for Johor to put its working days in sync with those of the west coast industrial belt and neighbouring countries.

They were responding to a news report saying the Johor government would look into the possibility of making the change to address problems arising from having different rest days for public and private sector workers.

Government servants in the state had their rest days on Saturday and Sunday until 2014, when the state palace decreed the change.

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Yeah Kim Leng.

Yeah said a common weekend for the public and private sectors would enhance administrative and operational efficiencies in both sectors.

“Given that the state is part of the west coast industrialised belt, reverting to Saturday-Sunday weekends will synchronise Johor with the other states,” he told FMT.

He also said reverting to a common weekend would be helpful in facilitating cross-border activities with Singapore and reduce scheduling problems among businesses.

“The different weekend is also less conducive for planning and scheduling weekend events that involve participants from the public sector and the private sector.”

He said having a common weekend would allow social activities such as sports and weddings to be more easily organised with less conflicts in schedules and thereby boost business in the leisure, hospitality, hotel, restaurant and tourism industries.

Barjoyai Bardai.

Barjoyai said the Sunday to Thursday work schedule isolated Johor from mainstream economic activities in most of Peninsular Malaysia as well as Singapore and Indonesia.

“If the state goes back to the Monday to Friday schedule, it will eliminate the three-day clash and will become more productive or at least as productive as neighbouring states and countries,” he said, referring to Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Yesterday, Bernama reported that all Pakatan Harapan and Muda assemblymen in Johor had expressed their support for the move to review the rest days in the state. - FMT