SPA urges state govt to open up more economic activities

KUCHING: The state government should consider opening up more economic activities, particularly involving the manufacturing and services industries, to prevent them from suffering ‘business fatigue’, said Sarawak Patriots Association (SPA) chairman Datuk Dr John Lau Pang Heng.

He said continued lockdown and restrictions may result in reduced client orders due to delay in the delivery of their products and services.

“It (prolonged lockdown) has already severely affected the financial health of these companies, due to decline in business, loss of income and may need business diversification in the coming months.

“Businesses are entering into the stage of ‘fatigue,’ and they all urge the authorities to activate the revenue contributions from manufacturing and services industries so that their businesses can prevail, allowing them to retain their workforce and continue to provide employment to Sarawakians,” Lau said in a statement yesterday.

As such, he said SPA is calling on the authorities to review their decisions so that all the manufacturing and services sectors as well as their supply chains may commence operation soonest.

He said that it was a summary of the face-to-face conversation between him and three groups of manufacturing and services business owners in the past week in Kota Sentosa and other parts of Kuching.

“It validated the report by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives that micro, small and medium enterprises which contribute 49 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) may be on the brink of collapse due to continued lockdown.

“Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said an estimated 580,000 businesses will be at risk by October 2021 if they are not allowed to operate by then,” he said.

Lau shared that in Sarawak from July 1 to July 11, based on the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) daily reports, 70.9 per cent of the identified locations where infections took place were from social activities, 16.2 per cent were infected in their workplaces, 12.1 per cent from eateries, and 0.8 per cent from others.

“From the workplace infection, less than five per cent of the locations were from manufacturing and industrial sectors.

“In view of this, it is logical for the manufacturing industries to request the authorities to open up manufacturing and services industries with strict adherence to standard operating procedures (SOP),” he said.

Lau noted that in the past months, authorities have requested manufacturing business owners to submit their staff names for vaccination, with the first one was in April, followed by another on June 17, with a different template.

“The last one was at the end of June, when they were asked if they would like to join two commercially organised centres for vaccination.

“Business owners are earnest and eager to have their team vaccinated against the coronavirus. The authorities need to focus on vaccinating the workforce in the economy sectors; many in the manufacturing workforce are waiting patiently to receive their vaccination,” he said.