I have today attended the National Recovery Council (NRC) meeting chaired by Tan Sri Muhyiddin at Ministry of Finance building at Putrajaya.
Amongst the things resolved in the meeting is the opening up of our economy by 1st March, 2022 whereby foreigners will be allowed to enter the country upon tested negative of Covid and without the need to quarantine. This resolution of the meeting will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval. Together with us in this morning’s meeting were Minister of Finance (Tengku Zafrul), Minister of Health (YB Khairy), Minister of International Trade (YB Azmin), Ministry of Works (YB Fadillah), Minister of Economy (YB Mustapa Mohamed) and other members of the Council. They have also shown their support in today’s meeting on the proposal.
Furthermore, now that Singapore, Thailand, England, Australia and many other countries are gradually opening up their borders and removing the need for quarantine upon entry into their countries, Malaysia cannot afford to continue imposing quarantine on foreigners. Therefore, it is most likely that the Cabinet will endorse the recommendation of the NRC.
On that note, as 1.3.2022 is just 3 weeks from now, the State Government must make preparation now to draw up the necessary SOPs for such opening of the borders and foreign tourist arrivals so that when the Semenanjung removes the quarantine SOPs for foreign tourists, the Sarawak Disaster
Management Committee will not be in disarray and slow to follow suit.
Our domestic economy has suffered tremendously over the past 2 years of the pandemic where tourists were literally reduced to zero. Not only the tourism industry suffered but many other sectors of the economy also suffered. The people’s predicaments were made worse with the confusing SOPs imposed by the SDMC which at times differed from the Ministry of Health.
Therefore, I urge the State Government to quickly make preparation for the opening of borders, standardise the SOPs and communicate with the private sectors to get them ready for the recovery plan.