Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said today that the government was in the middle of finalising a short-term economic recovery plan to mitigate the economic and health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which will be announced by the prime minister sometime in June.
The recovery plan is for a period of six months from June to December this year.
Zafrul added that the recovery plan was part of 4th “R” among the “6Rs” for the government to mitigate the health and economic impact brought about by the pandemic. The six phases, or “6Rs”, include Resolve in controlling the spread of Covid-19 by enforcing the movement control order (MCO), Resilience through the introduction of the Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package to increase the capacity of the rakyat and economy, Restart the economy in a controlled manner, to implement the Recovery of the economy, Revitalise the economy on a comprehensive basis and Reform the economy towards a new normal.
He said since early May, he and his staff at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) had discourses with more than 100 stakeholders. The stakeholders were involved in the tourism sector, social entrepreneurs, creative industry, trade associations, education, housing, manufacturing, human resource, private healthcare, NGOs and agriculture.
MoF also received and analysed various proposals about the measures to be undertaken. The feedback obtained showed that the situation faced by the people and businesses was very challenging.
A study by Nielsen showed that 40% of the workers surveyed said that their income had dropped during the MCO. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM), the main challenges faced by businesses were paying salaries (77%), lack of customers (66%), paying rentals (61%) and cash flow problems (36%).
In the technology sector, it was discovered by job platforms that applicants were increasing but job vacancies were getting fewer. Out of 10 jobs, four depended on the tourism sector which was badly affected by the pandemic.
The RM35 bil higher education industry is poised to face challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the constraints in attracting foreign students to study in Malaysia.
Apart from the 67% of employees who had returned to work, there were around 5 million Malaysians who had not done so. This was because the industries they belong to were in prohibited activities or due to tight SOPs.
“The short-term economic recovery plan will be focused on empowering the people, propelling businesses and stimulating the economy,” said Zafrul.
The characteristics of the plan include being dynamic, public-private sector cooperation is emphasised, the plan must receive the buy-in of the people and businesses, and it will be carried out transparently. – June 2, 2020
