Kuala Lumpur: States not complying with the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) to restart the economy are being unfair to small businesses, said International Trade and Industry (MiTi) Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali (pic).
Most of small businesses are reliant on daily wages, Azmin said during a dialogue on Agenda Awani Wednesday.
He said the federal government’s decision to implement the CMCO was thoroughly deliberated. This includes the fact that some of the green zones remain free of new Covid-19 cases for more than a month.
“In fact, the number of red zones continues to decrease day by day. If in the beginning, these zones usually involved a state, (the number) has gone down and limited to localities, which under the conditional MCO, are not allowed to do any economic activities yet.
“But what about the green zones that have been in the same level even since the early phase of MCO? Is it fair for the state governments of these green zones to not cooperate?
“Is it fair for small businesses like pisang goreng sellers and hawkers, when in fact, these states or localities have been in the green zone for a while now?” he asked. Sabah and Penang have refused to comply with the CMCO.
Azmin reiterated that the decision to reopen the economic sectors under the terms of the CMCO is responsibly supported by data and findings from his ministry, the Ministry of Finance, Bank Negara Malaysia and Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
The findings were presented for discussions with the Chief Ministers at the meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on April 28.
“Based on the discussions during the meeting, the state governments realised that should the MCO continue until June 2020, the cumulative loss of the national income is estimated to reach RM146 billion, or a shortfall of 10.3 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product).
“This would wipe out the economic success that has been achieved for the last four years,” he said.
Azmin said allegations that the government had restarted the economy hastily are baseless.
It had undertaken incremental measures to open up the economy from March 18 to April 28 through the first three phases of the MCO, mandating compliance with health requirements.
“These careful and prudent actions have yielded good results, particularly in terms of increase in the opening of economic sectors without jeopardising the government’s efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19,” he added.
Azmin said it is now the right time for Malaysia to relook at its economic structure and overdependence on unskilled foreign labour.
It is time to relook into enhancing technology and automation to move up the global supply chain, he added.
He said Malaysia’s position in the global supply chain will be affected if it is unable to restart economic activities now.
