PUTRAJAYA: The country's worst-affected industry by the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism sector, will need four years to recover, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.
He said the four-year timeframe, which was predicted by the Economic Action Council (EAC), will also see new industry players entering the hard-hit sector.
While admitting that four years is a long time, Muhyiddin said it is one of the reasons why the government came up with its economic stimulus packages.
"Among the sectors that are heavily-affected is tourism. Based on the projection made by the EAC, we were told that the tourism sector will need four years to recover and this is a long time.
"Perhaps, in these four years, we will see the emergence of new players, because the old ones are suffering losses, and this will give birth to new industry players.
"They, too, need support and assistance so that tourism can once again become one of the country's biggest revenue generators, because I think we (were) able to generate about RM80 billion from the tourism industry alone," he said.
Muhyiddin said this in his speech during his department's monthly assembly here today which was attended by all ministers in the Prime Minister's Department, as well as representatives of 56 government agencies.
This was Muhyiddin's first monthly assembly with his staff since assuming office on March 1 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his speech, Muhyiddin reiterated that the Movement Control Order (MCO), which halted economic activities since March, resulted in RM2.4 billion in losses per day for the country.
Therefore, he said the government's economic stimulus packages announced in recent weeks are proof that Putrajaya is determined to get the country's economy back on the right track.
"It is not easy to restart economic activities, and we know this based on our conversations with those on the ground, which was why the government took immediate action to disburse assistance to people in all economic sectors," he added.