MoF: Continued opening of specific economic sectors crucial to supply chain of essential goods

KUALA LUMPUR: The decision to allow several sectors to continue to operate during the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 period is crucial to safeguard the wellbeing of the people and to ensure the supply chain continuity for essential products and services.

Supply chains are complex ecosystem comprising people, operations, technologies, and information connecting the producer and the buyer through a network of entities and resources, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said in a statement today.

"For the supply chain to function smoothly, it said all of these elements need to work in tandem to ensure efficiency.

"While there is a need to contain the COVID-19 pandemic efficiently, there is also a need to prevent any disruption to the manufacturing value chain that could threaten the continued production of goods and services feeding into essential industries such as food, health/medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, goods such as soap and detergents (in the context of maintaining hygiene during this pandemic) and telecommunications," it said.

Learning from the lessons of MCO 1.0, the MoF said the government has also allowed the related value chain of essential goods, such as packing and labelling, to operate.

"In one instance, Malaysia is critical as the sole production site for aluminium substrate for all hard drives being produced by a factory in Johor, for onward feeding into the company's global supply chain.

"It will also have a long-term impact of diverting trade and investment from Malaysia, and hurting Malaysia's competitiveness in the global value chain. We already experienced this through MCO 1.0 when various Malaysian manufacturers reported that their orders had been diverted to other producing countries including China," it added.

To mitigate the COVID-19 transmission risk, the government, through enhanced monitoring and enforcement, will ensure that factories in Malaysia will strictly comply with the Standard Operating Procedures which limit physical presence at the workplace to 60 per cent.

-- BERNAMA