Govt mulls stimulus package amid outbreak

mazwin@thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: The government is looking at rolling out a stimulus package to assist sectors of the economy affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

At the same time, it will look at ways to bring in more foreign travellers to help the tourism industry which has also been affected due to fewer tourists from China, said the Prime Minister.

“The Finance Ministry is looking into it,” he said when asked on calls for the government to put out a stimulus package.

Dr Mahathir was speaking to reporters after attending a dialogue with French companies organised by the Malaysian French Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers called on the government to bring forward its economic stimulus package planned to address the impact from the USChina trade war if the coronavirus outbreak worsens the economic situation.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said his ministry would look at the estimated duration of the impact from the outbreak before determining the amount of the stimulus.

At the dialogue, the Prime Minister said the outbreak affected Malaysian tourism greatly, especially after it had planned for this year to be a Visit Malaysia Year.

“We had to stop Chinese tourists – who make up the biggest number of tourists to Malaysia,” he added.

The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry initially targeted three million tourists from China for Visit Malaysia 2020.

Between January and September last year, Malaysia saw 2.41 million Chinese tourists.

Following the outbreak, the government stopped tourists from Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – and the Hubei province from entering Malaysia.

Last Sunday, the government expanded its ban on travellers from two more Chinese provinces – Zhejiang and Jiangsu – to contain the disease.