Malaysia at Crucial Time to Contain COVID-19 Pandemic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- It is crucial for Malaysia to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the next few weeks to minimise its impact on the economy. However, a total economic lockdown should be the last resort, said Putra Business School business development manager Associate Professor Dr Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff. "There would be major repercussions to the economy, as there would be less liquidity in the market due to fewer transactions among the businesses and the people," he said. In an interview on Bernama TV’s Midday Update programme on Tuesday, he noted that the government has to walk a fine line between addressing the health crisis and sustaining and ensuring positive economic growth this year. "I still feel that there is room in terms of the Ministry of Health’s capacity to deal with rising COVID-19 cases," said Ahmed Razman. Meanwhile, he said the continuous allocation of fiscal stimulus for targeted segments would help to cushion the impact of economic slowdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. "We would like to have a V-shaped economic recovery (for 2021), but with the rising number of new COVID-19 cases every day, it is going to look like a U-shaped recovery. "This is what we want to avoid. We do not want the recovery to look like an L-shaped," he said. Ahmed Razman highlighted the need to support sectors which have been directly impacted by the pandemic, such as the aviation sector, by providing additional fiscal stimulus. "We want to make sure that there will be no additional number of businesses going bankrupt and people losing their jobs in the next few months," he said. -- BERNAMA