PUTRAJAYA’S four-phase Covid-19 exit plan lacks clarity and does not contain a detailed plan on how the government will steer the country out of the pandemic, said industry groups.

The national recovery plan introduced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was more like a “report” and did not detail how the country would achieve the key indicators to move from one phase to the next.

SME Association of Malaysia national vice-president Chin Chee Seong said the plan was disappointing.

“It’s not a plan to me, it’s just a report and it is not clear. You say exit plan, but what is the plan?

“A plan is (the setting down of what) you will do when certain things happen, but this is just an indicative plan, which is fine, but it’s very disappointing,” Chin told The Malaysian Insight.

Under the plan, most economic sectors will reopen in stages when the vaccination rate reaches 10% and daily Covid-19 cases drop below 4,000. Muhyiddin said this could happen by next month.

Chin, however, said rather than throwing out a figure for the vaccination rate, the government should instead state a clear plan to achieve the percentage.

“You say you when you reach 10% you will reopen in July or August, but is it possible to reach a 10% vaccination rate by July or August? Not sure, nobody knows.”

Chin said members of the food and beverage sector had reacted negatively to the plan, many of them fearing they would be out of business by the time the economy reopens. 

Chin said dine-ins should be permitted by phase two of the recovery plan and entertainment outlets, including cinemas, allowed in phase three, which is when 40% of the population have been vaccinated and daily Covid-19 cases lowered to below 500.

As it stands, these activities will only be allowed in phase four, which is expected to be in November.

“Allow the economy to partially open. If they are vaccinated, let them dine out. Then you will revive the economy. These are the things that we have to consider. They are happening in other countries,” said Chin.

He said Malaysia could be losing more than RM1 billion a day during the lockdown.

“The figure is subjective, but I think it’s more than that. But RM1 billion a day is more than enough to kill us.

“(Imagine losing) RM1 billion a day for six months by the end of the year; how do we recover that money? And what is the plan to help us recover this lost economy?” he said, adding that appeals for an automatic loan repayment moratorium and delay of statutory payments for SMEs had fallen on deaf ears.

Daily cases poor indicator

Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Micci) executive director Shaun E. Cheah said it was not a good idea as the number of daily infections is not a good indicator to resume economic activities.

“There’s no transparency with this number. Also, it is not a good indicator as mass testing by Selangor, for example, is producing higher cases.

“So, to manipulate the numbers, the government could increase or decrease testing.

“A better gauge would be the infectivity rate or the percentage of positive cases per total testing. Even the intensive care unit (ICU) beds indicator is not specific, what does ‘paras sederhana’ (at a moderate rate) even mean?,” said Cheah.

He also felt the recovery plan was unclear and lacked SOP that corresponded with each of the four phases. The prime minister said when announcing the plan that detailed SOP for each phase would be issued later by the National Security Council.

Cheah said Micci had a workshop with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in October last year during which the organisation designed a set of SOPs for each type of movement restriction.

The idea was so that businesses can prepare in advance for each scenario.

“With a clear set of SOPs, if the indicators are trending downwards, then businesses can start warming up their machinery, recall their employees, buy stocks, and so on,” he said.

The government could well meet its November goal to have 60% of the population vaccination if jabs are speeded up, Cheah added.

But even then, he said without a clear plan and details issued early to help businesses prepare to exit the pandemic, SMEs which make up 40% of the economy will be severely impaired and will take many years to recover.

Better than no plan

Dr Syed Hussan Syed Husman J.P, president of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) felt the national recovery plan provided employers with a realistic roadmap to return to normalcy.

He, however, said long term safeguards have to be put in place to ensure another lockdown does not take place.

Importantly, long-term vaccine supply must be ensured so that the national immunisation drive is not hampered. He called for local efforts to develop Covid-19 vaccines domestically.

“Though the number of people being vaccinated has been encouraging recently, the supply of vaccines is often disrupted by high demand, due to factors such as increased orders for third boosters by other countries to deal with the emergence of Covid-19 variants and mutations.

“The setting up of our own specialised vaccine research centre would look into the long-term prospects of producing our own vaccines without the need to depend on others.”

Syed Hussan said based on the current vaccination rate of 200,000 doses a day, he is confident the government can reach phase four by October.

“The National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme can be enhanced  further by allowing the full participation of private medical practitioners so that we can achieve herd immunity in a shorter time, and return to normalcy faster.”

As of June 16, 5.33 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered. Of this, 3.63 million or 11.1% of the population has received one dose. – June 18, 2021.