{"id":7754,"date":"2021-01-09T10:57:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T02:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=7754"},"modified":"2021-01-09T10:57:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T02:57:45","slug":"second-lockdown-can-cause-the-economy-to-collapse-warns-eurocham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=7754","title":{"rendered":"Second lockdown can cause the economy to collapse warns EuroCham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9\u00a0&#8212; EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EuroCham Malaysia) has warned that a second lockdown similar to that imposed in March and April last year may\u00a0lead to a potential collapse of\u00a0the Malaysian economy as many businesses would shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief executive officer Sven Schneider said the states most affected by COVID-19 were also the commercial and industrial hubs of the nation, which would&nbsp;multiply the impact of any strict lockdown to be implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe hope that the government will look into the matter with great consideration (amid\u00a0growing concern of\u00a0a potential second strict lockdown),\u201d he said in a statement today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-1024x570.jpg\" alt=\"eurocham\" class=\"wp-image-7755\" width=\"454\" height=\"252\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-1024x570.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-768x428.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-180x100.jpg 180w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-350x195.jpg 350w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-800x446.jpg 800w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg 1079w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>He said while Eurocham Malaysia&nbsp;supported the government\u2019s decision to respond to the COVID-19&nbsp;threat to public health by utilising proven strategies, it was&nbsp;not in favour of a restrictive full lockdown, which would likely not balance the needs of Malaysia\u2019s&nbsp;recovering economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schneider said at present, businesses were still restructuring and recuperating from the impact of the first lockdown due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAmong the many challenges&nbsp;most businesses faced during the full&nbsp;lockdown were substantial revenue and financial losses, logistics challenges and supply chain&nbsp;interruptions as well as retrenchments, to name a few,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said despite the losses that they had&nbsp;faced,&nbsp;many businesses and especially the European business community had&nbsp;learned to not only abide&nbsp;by the standard&nbsp;operating procedures&nbsp;(SOPs) set by the government but&nbsp;to also adopt even stricter internal measures within the&nbsp;office or manufacturing site to ensure the health and safety of employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schneider said in light of this positive development, EuroCham Malaysia&nbsp;felt that instead of a complete lockdown, a more targeted&nbsp;Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) with an enhancement of its SOPs focusing on stricter measures on travel and social activities would be ideal, as it&nbsp;would allow businesses to continue rebuilding and stimulating the economy again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf a second lockdown is to be implemented similar to March\/April 2020, it will cause serious implications to both the nation and the economy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bernama.com\/en\/news.php?id=1920034\">BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9\u00a0&#8212; EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EuroCham Malaysia) has warned that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg",1079,601,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-300x167.jpg",300,167,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-768x428.jpg",640,357,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a-1024x570.jpg",640,356,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg",1079,601,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg",1079,601,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg",1079,601,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg",1024,570,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d9ea04272ba8482fc1872f84036f0d6a5e959d167a50a.jpg",720,401,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=524\" rel=\"category\">Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754","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=7754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7756,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754\/revisions\/7756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}