The country’s recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown positive signals as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded an increase of 3.1% in 2021, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The National Recovery Council (NRC) chairman added that the transitioning of the country to the Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) and safe reopening of the economic sector have contributed to the improvement of the situation.

“The transition of the country to Phase Four has also contributed to the reduction of the unemployment rate to 4.2%.

“The reopening of the economic sector has also shown that external trade has reached RM2 trillion with gross value of foreign direct investment (FDI) exceeding RM50bil,” he added.

However, he said that the overall sectoral performance of the country is still below pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

“Critical sub-sectors such as the accommodation sector and the food and beverages sector are still below the performance of 2019.

“Hence, the second NRP will be crucial in ensuring the strategic recovery of the affected sectors beyond the pre-pandemic situation,” he said.

The council, which was attended by the Health and Works ministers and council members, met in Putrajaya to discuss the NRP 2.0 and the council’s action items for 2022.

“I would like to inform that the NRP 2.0 will be completed soon and to be considered by the government,” Muhyiddin said.

He added that the council has considered proposals by the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce of developing, recruitment and retention of talents to attract more foreign investment to the country.

“The proposals would help in increasing the competitiveness of the country as well as encouraging the private-public corporations,” he said.

The NRC agreed that emphasis will be placed on efforts to manage the impact of inflation and the increasing cost of living faced by the rakyat based on a sentiment survey by Malaysia Institute of Economic Research (MIER).

He added that the council has also considered and supported various proposals to improve the execution of Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) based on the successful Langkawi Travel Bubble programme.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by JUNAID IBRAHIM

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