​PETALING JAYA: MEF welcomed the government’s ‘no turning back’ policy with regards to the National Recovery Plan (NRP) and looked forward to be engaged by the Majlis Pemulihan Negara (MPN) as employer stakeholders in charting Malaysia’s way forward towards full recovery.

Commenting on the Prime Minister YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s address in Parliament today, MEF President Dato’ Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman J.P. said the government had provided clarity and structure to the NRP with the setting up of the MPN to take into account the views of all stakeholders.

“We thank the government for continually making efforts to accelerate the NRP. The establishment of the MPN under the NRP would allow stakeholders as well as opposition party representatives to share their views in charting the way forward.

“The NRP ‘no turning back policy’ has given employers much assurances that we will not return to lock down in future which is positive for the rakyat and the economy, and avoid confusion and further setbacks.

“The setting up of the MPN public portal would be a useful reference for employers and the public on the status of the NRP and the latest SOPs that had caused much confusion in the past.

“As the largest private sector employer representative in Malaysia, MEF hopes to participate in the MPN to ensure that the views and proposals of private sector employers are clearly reflected.”

He said MEF had also urged that the NRP be accelerated through strict compliance of SOPs and adoption of safe and healthy work culture by both the employers and employees.

“The government should continue efforts to ensure that 40 per cent of the population complete the vaccination in order to quickly move to Phase 3 of the NRP.

“We are pleased that the government has adopted a more holistic strategy for the immunisation programmes through the test, trace and isolate on mass and accelerated scale initiative,” he said.

“We hope these efforts would reduce the rate of Covid-19 infection so that the NRP can be accelerated to allow non-essential sectors to operate as soon as possible to sustain businesses and stabilise the labour market.”

“At the same time, the provision of stimulus packages is critical for sustaining businesses, especially the SMEs and micro enterprises, and to maintain the livelihoods of the rakyat, as evidenced in 2020 which managed to minimise closure of businesses at about 32,000 employers and job losses at about 107,000 employees.”

He said the Federation also looked forward to the 12thMalaysia Plan and Budget 2022 to put Malaysia back on track on growth mode with the theme of ‘Recovery, Resilience, Reform’.

“MEF fully supports the three pillars strategy for recovery to severe the chain of Covid-19 contagion, reduce the morbidity and mortality rates, and to protect the overall health of the rakyat,” he added.

For further information, contact the MEF Secretariat at 03-7955-7778 or fax 03-7955-9008 or email mef-hq@mef.org.my.

26 JULY 2021