KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — With the slowing growth of global and domestic Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, any events or opportunity which include the opening of China’s borders, should be given major focus for a trading nation like Malaysia, given that the republic is the country’s main trading partner.
Putra Business School, Master of Business Administration (MBA) Programme director, Associate Professor Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff said Malaysia should not miss out on the development as it could ensure economic stability and resilience, and many Malaysian businesses rely on products supplied by China.
“The reopening of China would help our small and medium enterprises (SMEs) recover faster.
“It would also greatly help the hospitality and tourism industry to revive because statistically, Chinese tourists were among the highest arrivals in Malaysia,” he told Bernama.
According to data from Tourism Malaysia, in pre-pandemic times, Chinese were the third largest in terms of tourist arrivals in Malaysia, with about 3.1 million Chinese tourists having visited Malaysia in 2019, from the the overall 26.1 million arrivals.
Although most Malaysians have received their vaccinations and boosters, and are better prepared to prevent COVID-19 infections, Ahmed Razman said Malaysia must not take things for granted as there is the possibility of a health crisis returning to the country, as a result of infections not only from China but from other countries as well.
“Therefore, in my opinion, the government could take concerted actions and efforts to ensure that there will be no widespread of new COVID-19 variants. This can be done through strict screening on tourist arrivals.
“The government should not rely on manual processes to monitor tourist arrivals but also utilised technology and adopt suitable mechanism so that there is a dedicated or integrated platform to allow any individuals or organisations dealing with tourists to report any incident or cases involving the spread of new COVID-19 variants,” he said.
While the government works towards ensuring that any outbreak of COVID-19 could be detected and monitored fairly quickly in the country, businesses should also be taking shared responsibility with the government.
“As the border reopening is giving them an advantage in their respective businesses, SMEs must adhere to the proper standard operating procedures (SOPs) when dealing with these tourists, for example, there is still a need to practise wearing face masks in closed areas and public transports,” said Ahmed Razman.
Meanwhile, professor and dean of the Institute of Postgraduate Studies, Malaysia University of Science and Technology, Geoffrey Williams said opening China’s borders would increase trade and investment globally and regionally in Asia after a long period of lockdowns and zero-COVID-19 policies.
“This will be positive. For Malaysia, China is the third largest market after Asean and Singapore, where exports to these two markets rose by 25.3 per cent and 26.4 per cent in November, but export growth to China was only 4.3 per cent.
“So there is a lot of export growth potential as China opens up,” he said.
However, on the downside, he said that concerns about new COVID-19 variants could impact growth if restrictions are imposed.
He also noted the importance not overreacting and learn from the lessons of the earlier pandemic.
“The high vaccination rates and the widespread natural immunity levels provide more protection this time than before and must be taken into account before we impose restrictions which might lead to further economic damage,” Williams said.
