KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) is urging all government ministries and agencies to utilise the Unified Public Consultation (UPC) portal to continue to maintain their stakeholder engagements especially during the conditional movement control order (CMCO) period.

Director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman said with the new normal of digitalisation, online public consultation via UPC would be able to reduce interactions between people and keep physical distancing between them on-site.

"As we grapple with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on how we conduct our public-private engagements and collaborations, there is no doubt that government agencies such as MPC has to shift our service delivery platforms to pivot to digitally enabling technologies in order to reach our clients and stakeholder base.

"The postponement or cancellation of public consultations should be avoided as much as possible, as the continuation of stakeholder engagements by leveraging on digital channels such as the UPC will only serve to further strengthen our efforts to protect our national social and economic interests to ensure our resiliency in a post-Covid-19 world,” he told Bernama.

MPC recently organised the GRP Webinar Session on Walkthrough Unified Public Consultation.

Abdul Latif said one of MPC’s key focus areas is enabling Good Regulatory Practices, by enabling the inclusion of all stakeholders in the drafting of new regulations and policies, as well as the amendment of existing regulations.

This to ensure that the evolution of the regulatory landscape in Malaysia takes into account the feedback and concerns of key stakeholders, he explained.

"Now, more so than ever, the online UPC portal is a critical channel to drive public-private collaboration, towards ensuring the sustainable development of the regulatory landscape, which focuses on reducing unnecessary burdens on stakeholders.

"This has become even more imperative in light of the unprecedented challenges Malaysian businesses are facing as a result of the pandemic,” he added.

Among the active regulators in UPC include the Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Department of Standards Malaysia, and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Peninsular Malaysia.

As for the ministries, the online consultation platform has seen active engagements from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, among others.

Meanwhile, MPC GRP policy and technical expert Datuk Ooi Say Chuan said UPC seeks to facilitate stakeholder engagements in the rule-making process in a  more effective and transparent manner.

"This idea of facilitating their input in an open platform makes everyone more accountable in giving their views,” he said, while urging non-participating regulators to take advantage of the existing UPC platform rather than create a new one that could be time-consuming and costly.

Since its inception in October 2019, the UPC has to-date completed 68 consultations, with 51 ongoing consultations.

Besides that, more than 13,000 users have registered on the UPC portal to provide their feedback and recommendations on regulations, while attracting considerable attention from stakeholders with 160,283 visitors.

The UPC portal can be assessed through www.upc.mpc.gov.my. — Bernama