PETALING JAYA: All approvals for businesses and industries to operate during the nationwide lockdown will be issued through a one-stop centre manned by the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti), says the National Security Council (NSC).
Miti will then check with the relevant ministries on the essential businesses and industries which have requested approval to operate during the lockdown (June 1 to 14), before issuing them with a letter to do so.
Earlier yesterday, all ministries put in charge of certain essential sectors were swamped with requests for approval to continue with operations.
Businesses and sectors which were allowed to operate during the lockdown spent hours trying to figure out which ministry they were supposed to apply for permission.
Websites of ministries overseeing the bulk of essential businesses, such as the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP), were also inaccessible yesterday.
With this one-stop centre under Miti, businesses and industries need not go to different ministries to apply for approval to operate, as was decided initially by the NSC last Sunday.
“In line with the implementation of MCO Phase One, all approval letters issued by Miti prior to this will be considered invalid from June 1.
“NSC has decided today to set up a one-stop centre manned by Miti to issue approval letters upon confirmation from ministries which monitor those sectors.
“New applications for work-related travel must now be resubmitted to the Covid-19 Intelligent Management System (CIMS) 3.0, which will be manned by Miti and involve all the ministries in charge of monitoring the 17 essential services sector, ” stated the NSC statement.
Senior Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali said Miti is capable of issuing the new operating approval letters within a short time.
“Our approval is very fast and CIMS has been running very smoothly since 8pm on Sunday, having been put in place for the past MCOs.
“As all those who had registered with Miti during MCO1 and MCO2 are already in the system as of last year, this time they just need to go online and download the new approval letter.
“There is no need for new registration if one already had an approval letter from the last MCOs, ” said Azmin.
However, he added that Miti will still check with the relevant ministries before issuing such letters to ensure only those permitted by the NSC can operate during the lockdown.
The approval to operate will affect a workforce of 16 million people in the public and private sectors.
According to Azmin, the services sector, which includes retail of essential products and services and its supporting industries, alone has a 4.38 million workforce.
“Manufacturing is the next sector with the biggest workforce of 2.26 million, followed by construction at 1.36 million.
“The agricultural sector has a 468,000 workforce while mining and quarrying has a workforce of 79,000, ” he stated.
During the current lockdown, NSC has ordered 40% of the workforce to work from home.
“For the manufacturing sector alone, that means only 900,000 of them work from home but the rest will need approval letters to be able to operate, as well as to travel to and from their workplaces, ” said Azmin.The deputy secretary-general at Miti for industry, Datuk Seri Norazman Ayob, said evaluation for new registrations for approval to operate will be on a case-by-case basis.
“For those already registered under the sectors approved as essential, approval is instantaneous.
“For new registrations, evaluation will depend on documents submitted by the companies, ” said Norazman.
He said for the manufacturing sector, companies need to submit documents to show they are indeed manufacturing companies by either providing the manufacturing licence number, Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) number or local authority licence number.
In a statement issued late yesterday, Miti stated that businesses which are allowed to operate but have yet to get approval may apply through notification.miti.gov.my
“Workers who need to travel for work may do so using the operating approval letter from CIMS, and a letter from the employer or a working pass, ” said Miti.
