KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): There is a need for further customisation of policies to support sectors and economic regions that are more affected by the Covid-19 pandemic than others, said Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar.
This is as the pandemic has had an asymmetrical impact on different sectors in different regions, the Economic Club Kuala Lumpur chairman said today in his welcome remarks for the KSI Institute's Malaysian Economic Summit 2021.
"For example, the F&B sector experienced higher closure rates particularly in the northern states where vendors rely on tourists from the Klang Valley. Other manufacturing sectors have experienced particularly high closure rates in East Malaysia," he said.
"I believe there is a need for a customisation of policies and programmes to enable the identification of sectors or regions where more support is needed. So indeed, as we move forward, it is our hope that there will be more targeted measures rather than blanket measures," Abdul Wahid added.
In the speech, Abdul Wahid also lauded Malaysia's rising Covid-19 vaccination rate, taking cue from the progress in the UK where death rate stands at single digits despite elevated daily cases, with nearly 90% and 66% of its population having received first and second jabs respectively.
"At the current rate of 337,000 doses per day, Malaysia would have some 70% of its people fully vaccination within 100 days or by end of October 2021.
"It is therefore our hope that as the vaccination rate increases, we can uplift and do away with a broad-based lockdown and instead have more targeted EMCOs only in highly infected areas," Abdul Wahid said.
While some have pointed out that the ongoing support to address the impact of the pandemic has been inadequate, Abdul Wahid said that understandably, without broad-based revenues such as the goods and services ta, the government's resources are rather limited.
"Fiscal deficit already at a high of 6.3% of GDP in 2020 and is expected to widen further to 6.8% this year, compared with the earlier official forecast of 6%.
"It is a delicate balancing act, but too wide of a fiscal deficit and high government debt numbers may risk a downgrade in credit ratings, resulting in higher borrowing costs and potentially weakening the currency," he said.
Meanwhile, Abdul Wahid also pointed to the increasing importance of adopting environment, social and governance (ESG) practices for businesses as the market environment remains volatile and challenging.
"There is enough data suggesting that organisations that adopt sustainable and ESG principles are better at managing risks and market swings, and are more resilient than peers who do not," he added.
The theme of the Malaysian Economic Summit 2021 is "Spurring Malaysia's productivity and growth after the Covid-19 pandemic".
The topics to be discussed are all relevant to the current times and imperative as the community look towards new approaches in navigating the strained economy, along the path of robust and sustainable, inclusive economy, said Abdul Wahid.