The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) welcomes the Government’s announcement on the resumption of 11 economic sectors business operations under Phase 1 and 2 of the National Recovery Plan, with effective from 16 August 2021 with conditions. The two main conditions are: The State or territory must have 50% of its adult population fully vaccinated and the relaxed rules only apply to customers who are fully vaccinated. ‘Fully vaccinated’ refers to 14 days after the second jab (for the two-dose regimen) and after 28 days for the single-jab regimen.

President of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (NCCIM) cum President of ACCCIM, Dato’ Low Kian Chuan is relieved that the Government has considered our call for allowing the operations of non-essential services sector though not all non-essential sectors are allowed. Hence, we again request the Government to allow all businesses (regardless of essential and non-essential services sector) to operate, subject to strict SOP.

The Government has also adopted the chamber’s proposal to allow the operations of the manufacturing, construction, mining and quarrying sectors under Phases 1, 2 and 3 starting from 16 August 2021. The production capacity allowable for the businesses is depending on the full vaccination of their employees:100% workforce capacity for 80-100% fully vaccinated; 80% workforce for 60-79% fully vaccinated; and 60% workforce capacity for 40-59% fully vaccinated.

Dato’s Low said that the latest relaxation rules is a welcome relief to many businesses, especially micro and SMEs as well as self-employed, whose have been struggling hard for survival under the prolonged pandemic impact and “open-shut” restricted containment measures. With the support of higher proportion of population vaccinated, the economy can be safely reopened and returning to normalcy in due course. On this note, ACCCIM hopes that the businesses to comply strictly with the SOP, and with the facilitation of regulators to ensure a smooth full reopening of the economy.

It is a critical time for our nation right now, a tight race between the speed of new variants generation of the virus and the speed of vaccination. The faster and higher proportion of population vaccinated, more economic and social sectors will be reopened and provide some lift to household and business sentiments.

Our battle against the COVID-19 pandemic is a long haul, even after achieving herd immunity. ACCCIM urges all Malaysians and businesses must not let down their guard and continued to maintain high level of SOP, including social distancing to keep our business community and workplace safe.

A three-pronged strategy: speeding up vaccination, 3-T approaches (tracing-testing-treating) and insolation is equally important to win the race of taking Malaysia out of the pandemic for resilient!