Prioritising industries in vaccination drive crucial to economic recovery, says Rafidah
PETALING JAYA: Former minister Rafidah Aziz wants the vaccination drive in the various industry sectors to be expedited, saying the economic future of the nation hinges on how soon they reopen.
If there was a lack of vaccines, Rafidah said, priority should be given to export-oriented industries as they were the major contributors to the economy and would have contractual obligations and deadlines to meet.
She warned that failure to meet these obligations would lead to the canceling of the contracts and Malaysia potentially losing that market forever.
“This doesn’t mean that others are not important. But if you only have 10,000 vaccines at hand, go for the industries first,” she told FMT.
She pointed out how Malaysian glove makers were the number one producer in the world and a major boon to the economy amid the pandemic, though factories in Klang, Selangor, had been forced to shut during the enhanced movement control order (EMCO).
“As an industry, they are afraid to lose their market. If we’re talking about economic recovery, these companies will give you a lot of taxes, which can then be disbursed to the rakyat in so many forms.
“Linkages to the world are very important. If these factories close down, tens of thousands of workers will lose their jobs, as the market can move to Thailand or Vietnam. More problems will surface down the line.
“The government is shooting itself in the foot now,” she said, adding that another product currently in demand was the semiconductor.
While noting that the government had embarked on the public-private partnership Covid-19 industrial immunisation programme (Pikas), she said she personally experienced how red tape had hindered employees of smaller firms from getting vaccinated.
She was assisting a construction company apply to get its workers vaccinated but the vaccination centre told the firm that it was prioritising companies with a minimum of 5,000 workers.
“Come on, this company was already ready to go. But they said no. What kind of construction needs 5,000 workers? The 2,000 were ready to go.”
She believed that if the government mobilised all its resources while making use of private facilities, it would be able to vaccinate the entire industrial sector in a shorter period of time.
Carmelo Ferlito, CEO of The Center for Market Education, agreed with Rafidah, saying current lockdown policies were killing Malaysia’s future.
He told FMT that Putrajaya should allow all businesses to resume operations now, while imposing compulsory weekly Covid-19 tests for employees and investing more on strengthening the public healthcare system.
He pointed out that Malaysia produced 102.59 billion pairs of rubber gloves in 2020, almost double that of 2019 as demand for gloves rose to 360 billion pieces last year.
“According to an ISEAS report, the estimated worldwide demand for this year stands at a massive 420 billion.
“These figures show the size and importance of rubber glove production, to which you have to add the importance in terms of employment and spillover effects on the supply and value chain, and the income created for them and their suppliers.”
While the government loosened restrictions for manufacturing factories under the EMCO in Selangor, glove factories remain closed. - FMT
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