KUALA LUMPUR – Although the newly unveiled RM150 billion Economic Recovery and People’s Protection Package (Pemulih) would provide support for those in need, including employers, the best way forward would be to allow businesses to open.
In asserting this, Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Datuk Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the aid package that targets the public and businesses, together with the vaccination programme, would provide only temporary relief to the targeted groups.
“While we appreciate all of the government’s interventions via Pemulih, we believe that the most effective way to address the issue of sustainability of businesses is to open quickly.
“As employers, we need to be self-reliant and not become too dependent on one-off handouts, even though many employers would not qualify for the handouts,” he said in a statement last night.
He said that businesses should be allowed to operate in controlled environments, instead of relying on the government to dispense limited funds to save their businesses and jobs.
“The continuous lockdown will only destroy businesses beyond salvage. There is a need to adopt a targeted, holistic public-private sector approach to manage this effectively.”
Syed Hussain recommended that the approach be adopted in areas with low numbers of cases, and allow businesses to operate in most sectors with strict standard operating procedures.
“For example, businesses in Selangor that are not part of any cluster should be allowed to operate, and this should be the same in states that have low infection rates and low usage of ICU (intensive care unit) beds, such as Terengganu, Perlis, and Kedah.
“There is no reason for safe states to still wait for the national thresholds to improve before reopening businesses,” he added.
He said that MEF welcomes the decision to allow businesses that have all their employees vaccinated to fully operate in the near future.
“Pursuant to this, the scheme to allow HRDF (Human Resources Development Fund) contributors to use their HRDF savings to pay for employee vaccinations is timely,” he said.
“However, the limitation of funding of up to 10% of the HRDF contributors’ balance may be too little, especially for the SMEs (small and medium enterprises).” – The Vibes, June 29, 2021
