PUTRAJAYA – The standard operating procedures (SOP) on the reopening of the country’s border is expected to be announced soon.
National Recovery Council chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Health Ministry was in the process of finalising the SOP before announcing all the necessary guidelines.
Despite the country’s rising trend of Covid-19 cases and subsequently hospital admissions, Muhyiddin said the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme and inoculation of boosters had showed its effectiveness in mitigating severe symptoms associated with the virus.
“The council wants to inform that the Health Ministry is in the final stages of finalising the SOP on the reopening of the border to be presented for approval by the Cabinet. Announcement on the reopening of the border is expected soon,” he told reporters after chairing the NRC meeting here today.
Muhyiddin also expressed hope for the SOP to be accommodating and would not affect the reopening of borders.
On a related matter, Muhyiddin said National Recovery Plan 2.0 (NRP2.0) which was being prepared by the council would aid the country’s economic sub-sectors affected by the impact of Covid-19 rebound and return to the pre-pandemic era.
He said although the recovery process registered a positive trend, the performance of economic sub-sectors such as hospitality; and food and beverage in 2020 were significantly lower than the previous year.
Muhyiddin said it was important for the NRP2.0 to be completed immediately to accelerate the country’s recovery process.
“Alhamdulillah, the recovery process of the country is showing positive outcome after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered a growth of 3.1 per cent last year compared to a contraction of 5.6 per cent in 2020.”
“The transition of all states into Phase Four under the first NRP has also reduced the country’s employment rate to 4.2 per cent.”
“In addition, the reopening of the economic sectors on a safe and systematic manner saw Malaysia’s total trade hitting RM2 trillion with more than RM50 billion in foreign direct investments.”
“The sectoral performances for the year 2020 in general are still way lower compared to the pre-pandemic era in 2019 that saw sub-sectors such as hospitality as well as food and beverage perform lower compared to the pre-pandemic era,” he said.
Muhyiddin also said would be formed under that council secretariat and they would be assisted by consultants.
“The NRP2.0 is expected to be completed between three and six months before it is submitted to the government for consideration.
“This NRP2.0 will outline the timeline for us to move forward to revive and restore all sectors affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
In addition, Muhyiddin said there were countries that had reopened their borders despite unresolved issues pertaining to vaccination.
“Malaysia has yet to reach such a point (has yet to reopen its borders). That is why this NRP2.0 is important,” he said.
Source: NEW STRAITS TIMES
