Yap
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Employers Association (SEA) president Yap Cheen Boon has urged the State Government to adopt a different approach with the National Recovery Plan, now that Sabah has embarked on mass vaccination exercise across the state.
“Barring no shortage of vaccines, soon more and more Sabahans are being inoculated; notching commendable milestone on the fight against the pandemic,” he said.
The association believes that the current National Recovery Plan is becoming irrelevant for Sabah’s context, as the measurables are strict on saving lives – number of cases, intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy and percentage of innocuous citizens but lost on propping up livelihoods.
Yap said phase one imposed almost one month ago had been harsh on the economy, albeit a necessary move to curb the seemingly runaway pandemic.
“Many businesses have been deemed non-essential and forced to close up during this period, paying economic costs of dormancy as a result.
“Those allowed to operate have to abide by strict standard operating procedure (SOPs) on reduced workforce and reduced hours, which have proven to be effective in curtailing infections, shown by records to date that most infections purportedly happen within social environments, and not within business compounds.”
He said Sabah’s economy is dominated by service sector, comprising almost 50 per cent, with oil and gas, agriculture making up 40 per cent, and manufacturing taking up seven per cent, construction three per cent.
He said many businesses within the main service sector have been deemed non-essential due to categorical definition, and forced to close up, resulting in a dampening effect on the economy.
These include services that do support allowed essential sectors such as vehicle service and parts, stationery and printing, construction supplies to name a few, he said.
Yap said the continued absence of support services and industries to open and support essential industries will have devastating ripple effect; rising prices due to restricted supply and services, inefficiency within supply chain leading to lapsed delivery cycles, collapsed companies with more layoffs leading to rising unemployment.
“To continue limiting any sector of economy from operations, be them related or not related to essential sectors will see domino implications eventually affecting everyone within the ecosystem, as aggregately demand and supply will be skewed.
“As such SEA believes that instead of waiting for Phase Two’s measurables are met and implemented which by then will still be too restrictive as only a few more industries are allowed to open, the state government should adapt the plan to suit Sabah’s context – initiate Phase 1.5 after June 28, where all businesses are allowed to open, but with strict SOPs to be abided by, and enforced without recourse by authorities.”
He said proven SOPs that work are limited workforce number, restricted operating hours, controlled inter-district travel, and minimized social interaction occurrences such as no dine in, limited capacity meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) activities.
“This will see resuscitated economic activities concurrent with mass vaccinations, and not adopting one measure belatedly after another, which by then will be too late for many businesses, thus bringing positive preservation effects on both livelihood and lives for Sabah.”