KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Traffic jams, crowded restaurants, malls filled with people.

These scenarios would have been unimaginable up until recently.

There was even a time when Malaysia was almost silent because of the Covid-19 movement control order (MCO).

Vehicles and people were hardly on the road, only those going out for necessary chores while shops were shuttered.

Living by ordering items online became the norm and one’s social media was filled with postings of what they were cooking or how they were getting exercise done inside their house.

Home businesses sprouted everywhere as Malaysians desperately looked for a way to earn money.

Fast forward to the present day and how things have changed.

People have gone back to offices, e-hailing riders and drivers are fewer because they have gone back to regular jobs.

However, it was reported recently that the number of cases was on the upward trend while subvariants of the Omnicron variant had been detected.

Experts have once again cautioned Malaysians to take the necessary precautions.

NRC continues its work to find solutions

The country’s National Recovery Council (NRC) has continued with its job of advising the government of the various measures that can be taken to continue safeguarding citizens against Covid-19.

Its chief executive Tan Sri Sulaiman Mahbob recently said that in the early days their recommendations were based on public health.

Malaysians were also inoculated twice through the national vaccination programme.

He also said that other impactful NRC proposals included reopening the domestic economy and international borders.

Recommendations were also drawn up for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that were badly affected.

It was also found that four of the most labour intensive sectors (manufacturing, construction, tourism and retail services) were badly affected due to the closure of international borders.

These sectors were populated by local SMEs.

Established on July 21 last year, the NRC is chaired by former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

It comprises senior ministers, ministers, senior government officials, Opposition party representatives as well as economic, social and health experts.

Its main objective was to make sure that each National Recovery Plan (NRP) could be achieved in a safe, orderly and inclusive manner for the wellbeing of Malaysians.

Muhyiddin suggested recently that a centralised system be created to integrate the management of all the various public welfare aid given out by government agencies.

He said this was because there were gaps in the administration of aid which has seen some people from the needy groups not receiving any while others were getting aid from two to three agencies.

The single mechanism, he added, would be a social safety net that can identify short-, medium- and long-term assistance to be provided to eligible Malaysians.

Muhyiddin also said that it was worrying that around 600,000 M40 households had fallen into the poor category, leading to the expansion of the B40 to the B60 group due to the economic restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He also said that the NRC had recommended that the loan rescheduling or restructuring programme (moratorium) be continued for the business community, especially the micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

NRP 2.0 in the making

Sulaiman also said that the NRC was in the process of refining NRP 2.0 for the further recovery of the economy.

It focuses on people and sectors most affected by the pandemic, such as B40 households and SMEs.

He added that the breakdown of their proposals’ status was that out of a total 69, 16 have been successfully implemented, 30 in the midst of execution, 14 yet to be executed while nine are awaiting the Cabinet’s approval.

Despite the many steps taken, Sulaiman said the government had shortcomings like the lack of urgency in dealing with the lack of foreign labour in the country.

This was a problem that he hoped the Home and Human Resources ministries would look into as further impediments could disrupt the existing supply chain sector and economic performance of the country.