Msia set for recovery in 2021 with most employees back at work — Tengku Zafrul
KUALA LUMPUR: In line with the reopening of the economy which saw nearly 70 per cent of the workforce returning to work in various sectors, Malaysia has the capacity that is set to spur an economic recovery in 2021, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said.
“We must rise again and record a positive Gross Domestic Product growth as opposed to the negative GDP forecast for this year in line with the global economic growth,” he said in an exclusive interview for a Bernama TV documentary on ‘Malaysians United Against Covid-19’.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecast a three per cent contraction in the global economy for this year due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid19) pandemic, he noted, adding that Malaysia’s economy, like those of other countries, would be affected.
Recently, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva was reported as saying the global contraction might be even worse than the three per cent forecast it made last month.
Tengku Zafrul said that to weather the economic downturn due to the pandemic, the government was implementing the 6R approach -- Resolve, Resilience, Restart, Recovery, Revitalise and Reform.
The first phase, Resolve, refers to the government’s resolve to curb the deadly virus by imposing the Movement Control Order (MCO) effective March 18. The MCO was announced at a time when the country’s Covid19 graph was showing a high number of new cases and urgent measures were required to flatten the curve.
The second R, Resilience, refers to building resilience through the RM250 billion Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package unveiled on March 27 and the additional RM10 billion allocation announced on April 6. The focus, Tengku Zafrul said, was on the affected people as well as the micro and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“The third R, Restart, was the move to reopen or recharge the economy in stages, while the fourth R, Recovery, is the country’s present recovery phase.
“We are currently formulating a short-term economic recovery plan, to be announced in early June,” he said.
Tengku Zafrul elaborated to reporters that the upcoming plan would see some of the measures introduced earlier being extended, as well as several new initiatives being introduced to boost the economy.
For the fifth phase, Revitalise, the minister told Bernama that a plan focusing on the medium term would be announced in either October or November this year. — Bernama