KUALA LUMPUR: With face masks supply in the country normalized and is sufficient to cater for domestic demand, The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) has urged the government to quickly lift the ban of face masks export, so as to generate the much-needed foreign revenues for the nation.
He noted that, Malaysia currently has six surgical masks manufacturers, and prior to the government imposing the export ban in March, four of them were producing surgical masks for overseas market, with 90 per cent for export, while another manufacturer was exporting 60 per cent of its production. They were capable of producing 1.5m pieces of face masks per day.
In a statement issued today, he noted that Huazong has received feedback from these face masks manufacturers that, since the government imposed the ban on export of face masks in March to ensure sufficient supply for Malaysians during the COVID-19 pandemic, they had not been able to accept orders placed by overseas clients, till to-date.
“Our local face masks producers who have depended on overseas market all these years are now worried that, if the government continues to impose ban on export of face masks, their overseas clients may start to place their orders with China, and this would cause them to lose the much-needed business in this trying time, and it may potentially forced them out of the business,” he said.
Goh thus hoped that with the face masks supply in the country has now normalized and there’s sufficient supply for domestic demand, the government could quickly lift the export ban, so as to allow the local manufacturers to start taking orders from overseas, and in doing so, helping to generate the much-needed foreign revenues for the country.
He proposed that the government to at least allow the local face masks producers to resume export at half of their previous volume, until such time when the Covid-19 situation in the country has fully stabilized, then only to allow them to export at full capacity.
He further noted that, with many countries around the world started to reopen their economic sector, the demand for face masks supply too has increased significantly, and the prolonged ban of face masks export would inevitably hurt our local manufacturers.
“This is especially so, if the overseas buyers started to place their orders with manufacturers in China,” he concluded.-pr/BNN
