National Recovery Plan needs committed stakeholders to succeed - MEF

For this to happen, president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the government must open up for dialogues to hear from all stakeholders and find out their issues at every stage of the NRP.

"Only by having such granularity can we examine the issues and make specific, targeted adjustments to improve the results.

"This needs to be done for all the four phases, as having dialogues with the relevant stakeholders would allow us to focus on revitalising the economy and bring stability to all," he said in a statement today.

Syed Hussain pointed out that employers and companies in the non-essential sectors want the government to provide better clarity on the details of the NRP, aside from providing financial support.

"Each stage of the NRP needs to be broken down and ironed out by all stakeholders, including micro enterprises.

"Getting the stakeholders involved is critical, as the key to a successful plan is in its execution," he said.

Syed Hussain said the four-stage approach under the NRP roadmap has multiple effects on both large and small companies, and is particularly devastating to those not allowed to operate during the lockdown.

"Already the prolonged lockdown has caused international supply chains to temporarily move away from Malaysia as companies were unable to fulfil orders," he said.

Having to remain in lockdown for another 12 weeks would drastically impact most businesses across all industrial sectors and lead to increased unemployment, retrenchments, loan defaults and bankruptcy.

He added that if the lockdown scenario persists, it would set the nation's recovery back even further with severe long-term consequences.