KUALA LUMPUR: With the slowing growth of global and domestic Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, any event 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 from China.
"The reopening of China would help our Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to recover faster.
"It would also greatly help the hospitality and tourism industries to revive because statistically, Chinese tourists are among the highest arrivals in Malaysia," he told Bernama.
According to data from Tourism Malaysia, during pre-pandemic times, Mainland Chinese were the third largest in terms of tourist arrivals in Malaysia, with about 3.1 million Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia in 2019, from the the total arrivals of 26.1 million.
Although most Malaysians have received their vaccinations and boosters, and are better prepared to face and deal with 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 can take concerted actions and efforts to ensure that there will be no new Covid-19 variants spreading around. This can be done through strict screening of tourist arrivals.
"The government should not rely on manual processes to monitor tourist arrivals but also utilise technology and adopt suitable mechanisms so that there is a dedicated or integrated platform to allow 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 when using public transport," said Ahmed Razman.
Meanwhile, professor and dean of the Institute of Postgraduate Studies, Malaysia University of Science and Technology (MUST), 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 Nov, 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 were imposed.
He also noted the importance of 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. - Bernama