SARAWAK has no plans for an economic stimulus package because the Covid-19 outbreak had “very little” impact on the state economy, Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said today.

“This virus outbreak affected us only a bit,” he said after launching the TravelSarawak app and website in Kuching today.

He said the national stimulus package Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is expected to announce on February 27 wouild be sufficient.

Abang Johari said Sarawak is shielded and insulated from the adverse impact of the Covid-19 outbreak because the “state’s economic regime is different from general national regime”.

He said while the state’s tourism sector is the “most hardest hit”, it is still manageable because Sarawak was not dependent on Chinese tourist arrivals. 

“Our tourism contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) is not that huge as we don’t rely on tourists from China.”

He also said the state had stimulated its economy when it put in billions of ringgit towards the development of infrastructure projects for this year.

He was referring to the RM6.597 billion allocation in the state’s 2020 budget of which RM4.141 billion will be allocated for the development in the rural areas.

They are mostly for the construction of bridges on the state’s second trunk road, the coastal highway; water projects in water stressed areas and electricity connections.

Abang Johari said the state’s projected economic growth this year is still on track for a 3.6% to 6% growth.

The non-reliance of foreign Chinese workers by the state’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had also shielded Sarawak from any adverse impact of the Covid-19, the Secretary-general of the Sarawak chapter of the Malaysian SME association Jordon Ong, said.

However, he said severe restrictions on the movement of people in China, the long Chinese New Year holidays coupled with the extended holidays to combat the spread of the virus, could affect the production and delivery of ordered machinery.

He said the prospect of the Chinese meeting the machinery orders and spares is not there at the moment as he sees they could not cope with the backlog of orders.

There are an estimated 5,000 Chinese workers in the state, mostly in the construction sector.

Over 200 are on the Baleh hydroelectric dam project. The others are mostly skilled artisans on temple restoration projects.

Sarawak has designated Indonesia as the only source country for foreign workers but workers from other countries are allowed to work in cases where the designated countries have no workers with the expertise for particular jobs.

Sim Kiang Chiok, Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association (Sheda) Kuching branch chairman, similarly said the none-reliance on Chinese workers had shielded the state’s property sector from any major negative effects.

Sim said he will get worried if Indonesia is adversely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. – February 19, 2020.