DAP Sarawak Chairman and Member of Parliament (MP) for Stampin, Chong Chieng Jen has urged the GPS Sarawak State Government to urgently make preparations for the proposed reopening of the Malaysian borders by the National Recovery Council (NRC). Yesterday, the NRC released a statement saying that it proposes for the Malaysian economy to be opened up by the 1 March 2022 whereby foreigners will be allowed to the country upon tested negative of Covid-19 and without the need for quarantine.
Chieng Jen attended the NRC meeting chaired by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the Ministry of Finance building at Putrajaya and clarified that the proposal has been sent to the Cabinet for approval and received support from various Ministers, including the Minister of Finance, Minister of Health, Minister of International Trade, Minister of Works and Minister of Economy.
Seeing how the proposed border reopening is less than three weeks away, the Stampin MP has called upon the Sarawak State Government to make immediate preparations and standardise the SOPs pertaining to Covid-19 with the Federal Government so as to avoid any confusion. Chieng Jen asserted,
“The State Government must make preparation now to draw up the necessary SOPs for such opening of the borders and foreign tourist arrivals so that when the Semenanjung removes the quarantine SOPs for foreign tourists, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee will not be in disarray and slow to follow suit.”
The Stampin MP further commented that Sarawak’s domestic economy has suffered tremendously over the past 2 years, especially the tourism industry which saw tourists literally reduced to zero. Furthermore, the people’s predicament were also made worse in Sarawak given how the SDMC imposed confusing and flip-flop SOPs that at many times were different from what was implemented by the Ministry of Health.
Hence, Chieng Jen urged the GPS Sarawak State Government to make preparations for the opening of international borders, standardise the SOPs and communicate with the private sectors to get them ready for the recovery plan. – The Rocket.
