THE government today said that all approval letters to operate businesses or to travel for that purpose will come from a one-stop centre overseen by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).

This is a departure from the government’s position yesterday that such approvals would be given by ministries for industries relevant to them.

It was also announced yesterday that all Miti approval letters to operate businesses or travel for that purpose given previously will cease to have effect from tomorrow.

This was supposed to be the new ruling for the two-week total lockdown, which starts tomorrow. This involves sectors in essential services that are allowed to operate under the lockdown.

However, the National Security Council in a statement today said that in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today, it was agreed that a Miti-run one-stop centre would issue approval letters for the businesses under the allowed essential services during the lockdown.

The approval letters would be issued by this one-stop centre after getting confirmation from the relevant ministries that oversee the particular essential services sector.

“As such, all new applications to travel to work must be submitted through the Covid-19 Intelligent Management System (CIMS) 3.0 which is handled by Miti, and involves all ministries that oversee the 17 essential services that are allowed to operate,” said the statement.

On Sunday, former prime minister Najib Razak urged the government not to let Miti Senior Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali have the final say on the companies that are allowed to operate during the total lockdown.

In a Facebook post, the Pekan member of Parliament said the minister should not be given “veto powers” to determine which industry gets in or out of the list of sectors that will be allowed to operate.

“The power to decide on the list of sectors allowed to operate during the total lockdown cannot be in the hands of the International Trade and Industry Ministry alone.

“The Miti minister (Azmin) also cannot be given veto powers to add certain factories to the list to prevent ‘towkays’ lobbying the minister,” he said in the post. – May 31, 2021.