KUCHING, June 6: The Federation of Chinese Associations Sarawak welcomes the state government’s latest move to relax travel restrictions for civil servants and frequent business travellers.
Its president Datuk Richard Wee emphasised that they have every confidence the state government will continue to be vigilant in their monitoring and handling all arrivals into Sarawak.
“With relaxed travel restrictions, we understand it may risk bringing outside infections into the state.
“As such, we hope that the state government will be able to maintain contact tracing on all the travellers,” he said in a statement today.
Wee, who is also Federation of Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Division Chinese Association president, pointed out it was a timely move by the state government as the business community need to quickly rebuild the economy.
“Our business community is grateful for the various efforts made by the federal and state government in shielding us from the full brunt of the Covid-19 impact.
“We are prepared to work closely with the government in opening up our economy in a sustainable manner,” he added.
Wee commended the state government for doing a good job in combating the Covid-19 pandemic which saw the curve being flattened and as a result, Sarawak is in the low risk category.
On June 4, State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) had announced that civil servants and frequent business travellers who have to travel to Peninsular Malaysia for work purposes would be exempted from having to undergo Covid-19 tests three days before entering Sarawak.
SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas noted that it will be difficult for these two groups of people to meet the entry requirements into Sarawak as some may need to attend meetings three times a week in Peninsular Malaysia.
As such, he said having to make them undergo Covid-19 test each time they were to travel was unreasonable and inconvenient.
However, frequent travellers are required to obtain and submit letters of authorisation from their heads of departments and companies stating their travel itineraries.
For business travels, he explained that the government will consider their applications.—DayakDaily
