MPN confident economic recovery in full swing soon

SEPANG: The National Rehabilitation Council (MPN) is confident that the country's economic recovery process will resume in the next few months following the reopening of the country's borders on April 1, said its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the simplified standard operating procedures (SOPs) for travellers would encourage more tourists to visit.

He said it was understood that 50 airlines had returned to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and it was a good sign.

"Thus far, the number of visitors is over 250,000 but it is still lower than the target. After the country is closed to the world for so long, we cannot expect it to rise in two weeks," he told the media after inspecting the situation at KLIA here today.

Muhyiddin said it would take at least two years for the economy to be where it was before.

He said the tourism sector, which contributed RM80 billion to the country a year, was among the worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and a briefing would be held with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) to look into the sector's recovery process which would take at least three years to resume its peak.

-- BERNAMA