PUTRAJAYA – The unemployment rate is projected to exceed more than a million people, if the government executes the Movement Control Order 3.0 (MCO 3.0) according to MCO 1.0 last year.
The government ordered all economy sector to close throughout MCO 1.0.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said, a total MCO will give negative impact to the people due to the loss of jobs and income. They will also deplete their savings.
He added, 2.8 million people who are working in the micro sector and small entrepreneurs would be affected as they will lose a huge amount of income.
“If we close the economy, the private companies will postpone their investment and also employment.
“Actually, MCO 1.0 has caused a loss of RM2.4 billion each day to the economy and it was even more concerning when the unemployment rate had increased to 5.3 percent (826,000) in May 2020.
“If MCO 1.0 is implemented again now, it is projected that over 1 million Malaysians will lose their jobs,” he said in a news conference.
According to Tengku Zafrul, the unemployment rate does not distribute evenly and it is focussed on the self-employed, youths, women and low-skilled workers.
Therefore, the government has taken the approach to implement targeted MCO on the type of activities permissible based on the previous experience.
“The unemployment rate has dropped to 4.7 percent since March this year.
“If we stop economic activities in MCO 3.0, the uncertainties in businesses will cause the private sector to suffer in terms of investment and employment,” he said.
According to Tengku Zafrul, MCO 3.0 is still utilising the standard operating procedures (SOP) of MCO 2.0, however, it has tightened social activities to curb the spread of Covid-19. –MalaysiaGazette
