KUALA LUMPUR: The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) welcome the government’s move to relax the curbs for economic sectors but they also want the government to refine the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
The chairman of the Small & Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta) central, Datuk William Ng said the government needs to relook at the current guidelines to make them more consistent and reflect operational reality.
Ng, who is the chairman of policy and government relations at Samenta, had put forward four proposals after the government announced further relaxation of the economic sector for states in phases one and two of the National Recovery Plan.
The government had released a new list of allowed activities and businesses permitted to operate from Monday. It added 11 economic activities will be allowed.
The government said individuals would be considered fully vaccinated 14 days after receiving the second dose of either the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Sinovac vaccines, and 28 days after being jabbed with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson or CanSino vaccines.
Ng said Samenta thanked the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs for championing the re-opening of the retail sector and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry for pushing for further increase of operating capacity based on the vaccination rate of employees.
“However, we urge the government to reconsider the current guidelines to make them more consistent and reflective of operational reality.
Firstly, he said there should not be the distinction between essential and non-essential businesses, and for re-opening decisions to be based strictly on capacity, ability to implement and enforce social distancing and safe operational guidelines and vaccination status of employees, customers and visitors.
“For example, while we are allowing the re-opening of morning markets, where enforcement is carried out by volunteers and RELA officers; we have yet to allow the operations of trade exhibitions, where enforcement is usually far more organised and held in larger venues.
“Another example of the inconsistency is that while we are allowing the re-opening of furniture shops in Phase 1 of the PPN, carpet shops are only allowed to be re-opened in Phase 2.
“Are carpet shops inherently more dangerous than furniture shops? What if a shop sells both furniture and carpets?” he said.
Secondly, Ng urged the government to refine the SOP and re-opening guideline to reflect a single operational parameter, instead of the announced tiered approach.
He suggested to allow all sectors, including manufacturing, construction and retail, to re-open at 80 percent capacity when 80 percent of all employees are fully vaccinated, while allowing only visitors and customers who are fully vaccinated.
“This will serve the dual purpose of reinforcing trust in the vaccine and avoid a potential enforcement nightmare for our already stretched frontline enforcement personnel,” he said.
Thirdly, Ng said that given the varied SOP, we urge the government to immediately direct all enforcement agencies to adopt a consultative approach to enforcing the SOPs, especially in the first one week of this new guideline.
“Businesses should not be fined immediately for inadvertent lapses and minor oversight that are not a clear danger to employees, customers or visitors,” he said.
Fourthly, the government must have a single agency or point of contact to coordinate the issuance of permits and operating approval letters, instead of requiring businesses to go to their respective “governing ministries”.
“This has caused some businesses to fall into cracks or ‘no man land’ as their businesses are not ‘under any ministry’,” he said.
Finally, he urged all SMEs to adhere to all SOPs.
“We have now been given the lifeline that we’ve all been asking for, so we must now step up and ensure that we operate our businesses with safety of employees and customers and visitors in mind,” he said.