{"id":3789,"date":"2020-05-04T13:11:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T05:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=3789"},"modified":"2020-05-04T13:11:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T05:11:04","slug":"government-to-relook-into-reliance-on-foreign-labours-mustapa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=3789","title":{"rendered":"Government to relook into reliance on foreign labours – Mustapa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 4\u00a0 –The government will have a relook on\u00a0policy\u00a0regarding the country’s 2.3 million foreign labours, following various difficulties encountered by the group\u00a0during the Movement Control Order (MCO)\u00a0to stop the spread of COVID-19, said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy).<\/p>\n

Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the number\u00a0of foreign labours in the country could be controlled in order to\u00a0create\u00a0more job opportunities for locals.<\/p>\n

“However, we are aware of the need for foreign labours among certain industries to meet the economic demands,”\u00a0he said during RTM’s\u00a0“Bicara Naratif”\u00a0programme\u00a0on “Post COVID-19 Economic Recovery”\u00a0last night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Meanwhile, Mustapa said the reopening of certain economic sectors under the Conditional\u00a0 Movement Control Order (CMCO) beginning today would prevent the economy from suffering a\u00a0four-year reversal.<\/p>\n

The economy according to him, would remain in the same position as in 2016 with the per-capita income declining to US$ 9,000 compared to present level of US$12,000 if no action was taken to revive the economy,<\/p>\n

“The pandemic that hit Malaysia and the world is very historic in the modern economy. Therefore, the business operation is expected to curb the country’s economic downturn,”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The CMCO also provided\u00a0opportunities for the people to be employed\u00a0and not rely on the Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package (PRIHATIN), thus increase the purchasing power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have flattened the COVID-19 transmission curve, but not yet fully. Health is still the priority.<\/p>\n

“We are now entering the gradual resumption of the economy under strict Standard Operating Procedure\u00a0and it needs high-level of discipline,”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The RM250 billion PRIHATIN Economic Stimulus Package was announced by the Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on March 27 to ease the burden of the people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 and the MCO.<\/p>\n

Mustapa said there were\u00a0companies including multinationals in\u00a0the textile sector which\u00a0announced that they would stop operating their businesses\u00a0due to receiving less demand from developed countries.<\/p>\n

Changes in business strategies including by small and medium-sized enterprises\u00a0could\u00a0result in job loss and unemployment.<\/p>\n

“That is\u00a0why wage subsidies are being improved to help employers protect\u00a0jobs. But we know, the\u00a0recovery will not happen overnight,”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

On April 6, the allocation for the wage subsidy program announced via\u00a0the PRIHATIN Economic Stimulus Package was increased from RM5.9 billion to RM13.8 billion.<\/p>\n

In the long term, the government is looking at industries that have the potential to compete as well as study\u00a0new incentives to encourage foreign and local investment, Mustapa said.<\/p>\n

Guarantees are also given to the implementation of infrastructure projects such as the East Coast Rail Project (ECRL) to enable it to become a\u00a0“game-changer”\u00a0in transforming\u00a0the country’s economic landscape.<\/p>\n

“The 12th Malaysia Plan, as well as the Shared Prosperity\u00a0Vision of 2030, will be given attention.<\/p>\n

“Efforts to improve the people’s standard of living continues, but (the improvement)\u00a0will only happen if there is economic growth from now on,”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

— BERNAMA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4\u00a0 –The government will have a relook on\u00a0policy\u00a0regarding the country’s 2.3 million…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,7574,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-covid19","category-economy"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62.jpg",3500,2334,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62.jpg",1536,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62.jpg",2048,1366,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62.jpg",1267,845,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62.jpg",1024,683,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/d38f4b58a5ac66e38383b43f8057193e5ea2c27853d62.jpg",712,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Business<\/a> COVID19<\/a> Economy<\/a>","tag_info":"Economy","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3791,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions\/3791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}