KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CU)_Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin held a press conference on March 1 to mark one year of his presidentship after the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition took power. Speaking at the conference, the Prime Minister stated that the government had succeeded in ensuring the development of people’s lives and livelihoods. He appreciated the accomplishments of the government in the previous year in the fields of education, culture, healthcare, stability, and national unity and said that the initiatives had positive impacts and garnered attention among people.
One of the significant plans adopted by the government was a stimulus package worth 250 billion RM (61.7 billion USD) that was announced on March 27, 2020, with the goal of protecting citizens, helping businesses, and consolidating the economy. Thereafter, a 15 billion RM package was announced to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, protect people’s health, and sustain business operations amidst the pandemic.
The Malaysian government recently announced the national COVID-19 vaccination program, with the aim of vaccinating about 80 percent of the population. According to the PM, this strategy will be implemented until February 2022 and will be split into three stages. To reduce the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on small-scale traders, the government had reinforced the movement control order while still allowing new business households to operate under strict guidelines in areas with high infection rates, known as red zones.
The initiatives are intended to provide additional support to the poor businesses that are unable to reopen, while concentrating on national digitalisation and change. Malaysia’s unemployment rate declined to 4.8 percent in December 2020, and it was projected that the economy will recover in the second quarter of this year.
