PUTRAJAYA: The standard operating procedures (SOP) for reopening the country’s border are likely to be released shortly.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, chairman of the National Recovery Council, stated that the Health Ministry was finalising the SOP before announcing all relevant recommendations.
Despite the country’s rising trend of Covid-19 infections and hospital admissions, Muhyiddin stated the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme and booster inoculation have demonstrated efficiency in minimising severe symptoms linked with the virus.
“The council wants to inform that the Health Ministry is in the final stages of finalising the SOP on the reopening of the border to be presented for approval by the Cabinet. Announcement on the reopening of the border is expected soon,” he told reporters after chairing the NRC meeting here today.
Muhyiddin further expressed hope that the SOP would be cooperative and would not impede border reopening.
On a related note, Muhyiddin stated that the council’s National Recovery Plan 2.0 (NRP2.0) will assist the country’s economic sub-sectors afflicted by the impact of Covid-19 in rebounding and returning to pre-pandemic levels.
He stated that, while the recovery process was showing signs of improvement, the performance of economic sub-sectors such as hotel and food and beverage in 2020 was much lower than the previous year.
Muhyiddin stressed the importance of completing the NRP2.0 as soon as possible in order to hasten the country’s recovery.
“Alhamdulillah, the recovery process of the country is showing positive outcome after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered a growth of 3.1 per cent last year compared to a contraction of 5.6 per cent in 2020.
“The transition of all states into Phase Four under the first NRP has also reduced the country’s employment rate to 4.2 per cent.
“In addition, the reopening of the economic sectors on a safe and systematic manner saw Malaysia’s total trade hitting RM2 trillion with more than RM50 billion in foreign direct investments.
“However, the sectoral performances for the year 2020 in general are still way lower compared to the pre-pandemic era in 2019 that saw sub-sectors such as hospitality as well as food and beverage perform lower compared to the pre-pandemic era,” he said.
Muhyiddin stated that a team will be formed within the council secretariat and would be assisted by consultants.
“The NRP2.0 is expected to be completed between three and six months before it is submitted to the government for consideration.
“This NRP2.0 will outline the timeline for us to move forward to revive and restore all sectors affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Muhyiddin stated that certain nations had reopened their borders despite outstanding immunisation difficulties.
“Malaysia has yet to reach such a point (has yet to reopen its borders). That is why this NRP2.0 is important,” he said.
