KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's borders are expected to reopen to foreign visitors latest by Jan 1 as part of the government's efforts to expedite recovery of the country's tourism sector.
National Recovery Council (NRC) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the move was made after taking into consideration the achievements made from the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme.
Muhyiddin, who chaired the NRC meeting this morning, said the council took note of the sector's current situation, which saw a slow recovery progress from lack of international tourist arrivals, apart from tourism operators requiring more time to restart their businesses.
He said at the meeting, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah presented the latest updates on the indicators pertaining Covid-19.
"In general, I'm satisfied with the development, particularly in the trend of daily positive cases, deaths, admission of Covid-19 categories 3 to 5 in hospitals and vaccination rate among the adult population, having reached 95 per cent and 76.7 per cent for adolescents.
"However, we must remain vigilant and continue to adhere to the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) while the government continues vaccinating those who have yet to complete their doses and for booster shots," he said in a statement.
He said the council was also given updates on the performance by economic sectors and their sub-sectors in the second quarter of 2021 by chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.
Based on the indicators, the performance by most sectors was still below the level recorded before the pandemic, save for the production sector, he said.
He said the council was also informed of the country's economic prospects for the third and fourth quarters of the year that could still be challenging.
"Therefore, the council has emphasised on the need to boost efforts that are quick and in an integrated manner, based on the priorities to improve the economy."
Also presented at the meeting, he said, was on the development of contact-tracing efficiency through the adoption of technology that was agreed upon at the council's second meeting.
Muhyiddin said the improvements were vital as one of the measures to curb the Covid-19 infection, while the country resumed its economic and social activities as it moves towards the endemic phase.
He said the improvements were being carried out in stages and that the council had agreed that full implementation of the updated system would begin latest by January next year.
Pursuant to an earlier meeting on the need for manpower in various sectors, a briefing by Immigration Department's director-general Datuk Indera Khairul Dzaimee on the implementation of the Foreign Labour Recalibration Programme was also held at the meeting.
"The council has taken note of the steps to improve the recalibration programme that will be carried out by the Immigration Department to help address the issue of lack of manpower faced by various economic sectors."