GEORGE TOWN: Manufacturers, badly hit by economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, now want the government to allow their factories to resume operations.
“If the full restriction on movement continues, we will lose our competitiveness,” said chairman of the northern region chapter of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Datuk Dr Ooi Eng Hock yesterday.
He said if factories in Malaysia do not reopen soon, they would be replaced by those in China, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea in the global supply chain.
To curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the government put in place a movement control order (MCO) that began on March 18 and has since been extended to April 14.
Under the MCO, all non-essential services are required to stop operations, leaving hundreds of factories devoid of workers. Ooi was commenting on a proposal by special adviser to the Penang Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Lee Kah Coon, to allow factories to reopen soon to help reverse the adverse economic slowdown resulting from the enforcement of the MCO.
Ooi said 70% of factories and 80% of small and medium enterprises, considered the backbone of the country’s economy, were currently not operating because of the MCO.
“Yes, healthcare is paramount but we must look ahead of the curve. We must look into the future on how we manage such a doomsday scenario.”
Lee had said earlier that there was a good chance that the MCO would be extended further because of the increasing number of new Covid-19 cases.
He urged the government to work on an environmental, health and safety protocol for industries to adopt so they could re-energise the manufacturing sector and put Malaysians back to work but with the proper protection.
He also said that the government, industries and employees should build trust among one another and form partnerships to make it possible.
“We need to look for a paradigm shift away from pitting health against the economy. Otherwise, we may have a bankrupt government, shuttered industries and unemployment awaiting us after this pandemic is over.”
Lee said the MCO would also heavily affect the well-being of citizens in terms of their employment.
“Although our national unemployment rate stood at just above 3% (about 500,000 unemployed people) before the MCO, the latest projection shows that we might see a 15% (about 2.4 million unemployed) rate if we do not quickly put our workforce back to productive work,” he added.
In an immediate response, Penang Private Medical Practitioners Society president Assoc Prof Dr Sivakumar S. Balakrishna said it was difficult to analyse at this juncture if the MCO should be lifted.
“The detailed data on Covid-19 is not available to the private sector medical fraternity. But based on daily media updates by the Health Ministry, there has been no exponential increase in fatalities or number of cases since the MCO was imposed,” Sivakumar said.
