Public administration reform among focus by EAC in long-term economic recovery plan

KUALA LUMPUR – The Economic Action Council (EAC) is focussing on several key thrusts in the long-term economic recovery plan, including reforming public administration in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic that hit the country earlier this year, as reported on Bernama.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the government, through the EAC, had conducted a series of workshops in an effort to revive the economy.

Today’s workshop, which was centred on public institutions and governance according to him, was the fifth organised by the EAC.

So far, the workshops conducted by the EAC focussed on several issues, namely the readiness of the future workforce, empowering the digital economy, preparation for the changing global landscape and improving the quality of regulation and market.

“Today we have the fifth workshop aimed at gathering ideas on the economic recovery. We assembled a total of 60 civil servants from various ministries to discuss the challenges we faced today.

“We also discuss how we can prepare to face the challenges after COVID-19,” he told reporters after delivering a welcoming address at the workshop here, on August 6.

Among the preparations to face post-COVID-19 era, the government sectors he said, should take the initiative to redistribute civil servants according to the current needs of the sector during this recovery phase.

“We have to be fair. There are sectors that may require more staff than ever before (COVID-19) and there are also the opposite. We must also train our officers to be skilled now and in the future,” he said.

Although this pandemic poses many challenges to the country, Mustapa also said it has opened up space for the government to implement transformation in terms of economic planning and administration as a whole.

“This is an opportunity for us to implement new policies. The global landscape has also changed where most countries are now protecting their interests, compared to free trade before.

“We will use this opportunity to ensure that we have sound policies that will ensure Malaysia can further strengthen its position,” he added.

Through continuous monitoring by the EAC, there are already signs of a strong economic recovery, he said.

“We are looking at some figures that show our economy is recovering, such as the sale of vehicles by Proton, which recorded the best sales revenue in eight years recently, as well as the increase in domestic tourism.

“We must continue to encourage more domestic tourism and we hope the sector which is among the worst affected by COVID-19 will recover,” Mustapa added.