AS COVID-19 upended the world as we know it, Umno urged the Government to use its ingenuity to rejuvenate the economy and equip workers with new skills to brace “new norms”.
“Foreign Affairs, in its latest publication, declared that COVID-19 is a ‘forever virus’. It will part of our lives, eternally and will not disappear.
“Therefore, we must prepare for a paradigm shift that this pandemic will become endemic like a common cold. Our recovery strategy should be formulated with such thoughts,” its deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said in a Facebook post.
Last month, Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin announced the National Recovery Plan (NRP), with the country undergoing three phases before a complete recovery from COVID-19.
Despite criticism and COVID-19 tally breaking the five-figure daily tally, the Government insisted that NRP was on track, with the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in Selangor lifted yesterday night.
On that note. Mohamad Hasan urged the Government to increase announcements, by making public the total number of vaccinations and daily booster shots given to the masses.
“We must also announce the percentage of people having received the vaccines daily. This is a strategy to boost public confidence,” he opined.
On NRP, the Umno leader said that efforts to restore the country to normalcy must start immediately, instead of waiting for various phases to be announced.
For starters, Mohamad Hasan urged the Government to allow the 17% of the population, who had been fully vaccinated, to resume their normal lives.
“Let’s allow them to work, study, cross district, go to mosques and do business with strict and clear health protocol conditions. We can’t wait until everyone gets vaccinated.
“Start now and slowly because it reflects that we believe in science solutions through vaccinations. Increasing economic and social activities will happen at the speed of vaccination,” he stated.
On a related matter, Mohamad Hasan said the pandemic made people realise that the workforce needs different skills when the economic sector is fully reopened.
He also said that the current system, skills, attitude and work culture can no longer be “changeless”, adding how the damage on Malaysia’s economy was severe since most of our workforce was in “non-essential services”.
“They are not in the financial sector, data, information technology and advanced technology. That is why the ‘work from home’ format cannot be done effectively.
“We’re not like Singapore, where most of its workforce is in ‘essential services’ and they can work effectively anywhere,” the Rantau state assemblyman stressed.
Mohamad Hasan noted that the Malaysian workforce can be equipped with the necessary skills now instead of waiting for the economic sectors to get fully reopened, as most them were stuck at homes.
“Finally, the opening of various economic and social sectors requires us to use various advanced technologies immediately and on a larger scale.
“Provide various incentives for digitilisation and any transition to ‘ mechanisation ‘, artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘robotic technology ‘.
“This is the golden opportunity for Malaysia to reengineer its economy, driven with technology and innovation and abandon last century orientation in the economic system,” he remarked. – July 17, 2021
