PUTRAJAYA FEB.22: The government will announce the opening of the national borders soon after the Ministry of Health (MOH) finalised the SOPs for the Cabinet Ministers’ approval before it is being implemented.
Chairman of the National Recovery Council (NRC) Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin hopes the SOP will be less strict and easier so as not to have effects on the opening of the national borders.
“The NRC has proposed the national borders to be opened on 1st March 2022. The government should speed up the decision as the faster it is opened the more profits will be reaped by the economic sectors,” Muhyiddin said at a press conference after chairing the NRC meeting here today.
Muhyiddin said, Australia has not completed its vaccination process but it has opened its borders today while Malaysia is ranked in the top 10 most successful country in vaccinating the people but still have not opened its borders.
The former Prime Minister said, if there is a delay in the opening of the borders, the tourism sectors will lose RM80 billion per year and this will also have impact on the “health tourism” and private education sectors.
Muhyiddin also mentioned on the successful initiative of the Langkawi International Travel Bubble and plans to open up other resort islands for the same programme.
“NRC has considered and supports several improvisation proposals from LADA including the reduction of the tracing test that is imposed on tourists, utilisation of facilities in the programme, the implementation of Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) Langkawi-Singapore and the opening of the open-sea border for the benefits of travel cruises and yachts,” Muhyiddin said.
Muhyiddin also stressed that even though on the whole the economic recovery of Malaysia has shown positive results but the sectored performance for 2021 has been lower compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.
He said the critical sub-sectors such as accommodations, food and drinks still remain under pre-pandemic level. The National Recovery Plan (NRP) 2.0 is very important for the strategic recovery of the affected sectors to be above the pre-pandemic level.
“NRC has discussed the strategic NRP2.0 and the action plans for 2022 and will present to the government once it is completed,” Muhyiddin said. –Malaysia World News
