{"id":8338,"date":"2021-02-21T20:40:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T12:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=8338"},"modified":"2021-02-21T20:40:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T12:40:59","slug":"economy-to-show-positive-development-once-vaccination-gathers-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=8338","title":{"rendered":"Economy to show positive development once vaccination gathers momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 &#8212; The country&#8217;s economy is expected to show a positive&nbsp;development&nbsp;by the middle of this year once&nbsp;the&nbsp;National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme, which begins on Wednesday, gathers momentum, an economist said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Malaysian Academy of Sciences fellow Datuk Dr. Madeline Berma said economists predicted that Malaysia would be able to revive its\u00a0economy starting the third quarter of this year, depending on the smooth implementation of the vaccination program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is in line with the forecast issued by the Economic Planning Unit which expects the country&#8217;s economy to recover around 4.5 to 5.0\u00a0per cent,&#8221; she said\u00a0in\u00a0a special coverage of the\u00a0first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrival\u00a0to Malaysia on BernamaTV\u00a0on Sunday.<\/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\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png\" alt=\"economy\" class=\"wp-image-8339\" width=\"480\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png 586w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52-183x100.png 183w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52-350x192.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Madeline said the services sector was one of the sectors that needed to be given priority in the vaccination programme, besides the manufacturing sector&nbsp;to help increase production rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She&nbsp;hopes with the national immunisation programmme&nbsp;underway, the country&#8217;s tourism and export sectors could also be mobilised again to open more economic opportunities for industry players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The country&#8217;s tourism and export sectors&nbsp;have&nbsp;been badly&nbsp;affected by&nbsp;the closure of national borders since the Movement Control Order was imposed,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Madeline said investments from&nbsp;international pharmaceutical companies in the research and production of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country could help reduce the unemployment rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said the potential for collaborative research and vaccine production in the country would open up opportunities for recruitment of highly skilled graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We hope the presence of pharmaceutical companies that could create jobs will drive the country&#8217;s economy and instils&nbsp;confidence in&nbsp;foreign and local investors that the country&#8217;s economy is growing and recovering well with a good cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is a good development in the effort towards a high-tech country in line with the launch of the Malaysia&nbsp;Digital Economy Blueprint,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bernama.com\/en\/business\/news.php?id=1933619\">BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 &#8212; The country&#8217;s economy is expected to show a positive&nbsp;development&nbsp;by the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52-300x164.png",300,164,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Screen-Shot-2021-02-21-at-20.37.52.png",586,321,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=17\" rel=\"category\">Economy<\/a> <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\/8338","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=8338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8340,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions\/8340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}