Consultation Sessions with Industry Player On the Impact of Coronavirus to the Industris / Economy (MITI)
President Bill Lee attended MITI consultation session with industries player on the impact of coronavirus to the industries / economy on Feb 11th 2020. MITI Deputy Secretary General (trade) Dato Sri Norazman Ayob gave his opening remarks by mentioned that Korean Car Manufacturer Hyundai, has halted its production in South Korea due to a shortage of parts sourced from China. He mentioned the sessions’s main objectives:
1. Understand from industry what likely to be the impact in 3 to 6 months.
2. If there are impacts, what are the measures that government can take. What type of stimulate packages can boost the economy.
Presentation was given by MIDF. A Thematic Report has been published on the 6/2/2020. This Report are free for download from MIDF website. (http://www.midf.com.my/…/Thematic-Econ-Strategy-Coronavirus…). The report is very detailed and it mentioned the sector that impacted most if china dropped household expenditure by 10% is actually E&E sector.
Most of the trade association mentioned that the impact is still at a preliminary stage. Perhaps the most critical are the source of raw materials if the industries are heavily relying on China.
Tourism and Education are badly affected. Tourist reduced tremendously whether from china or other regions. Many student from China are not allowed to come back to Malaysia after the CNY holidays, as the parents will rather want them to stay back. Retails are affected even before the coronavirus outbreak. Perhaps retailers have to think of their way to get their product to reach the consumers without having them walking out from house.
Mr Bill Lee have raised 3 issues or impacts likely to happen to BMDAM members:
a. Payment from China contractors will likely to delay further due to the person in charge are not allow to travel from China after the CNY. Whether they are taking it as opportunity, we will be impacted.
b. PPS for import are likely to expired time to time. At current situation, is our authority willing to travel to china for the inspection.
c. Domestic transport in China are halted, products that we have ordered are unable to deliver to Port hence, undelivered to us. If it is not impacted us now, it will be soon in 3 to 6 months. Some of our members ordered and waiting to be deliver for the up coming projects will definitely affected.
Dato Sri mentioned SHELL are well known to have “scenario planning “ that helped them overcome oil crisis. Businessman in Malaysia should learn from SHELL Scenario Planning. Dato Sri gave a closing by mentioning that hopefully industry can submit with figure data rather then just issues as the government would like to see data to determine the impact.
