Good regulatory practice needed for pandemic recovery
03 Aug 2021
A good regulatory practice among businesses and government agencies is vital in facilitating the country to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and achieve the targeted economic growth.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Alisaid the government has taken all the proactive steps to improve Malaysia’s regulatory system to make it more agile and responsive in dealing with difficult situations.
“We are all well aware that the Covid-19 crisis has had a major impact on productivity not only in Malaysia but all over the world.
“With the current state of the pandemic, Malaysia is targeting the economy to expand this year, thus, a good regulatory practice is one of the important elements to be adopted by businesses to help the country achieve the target,” he said during the launch of the National Policy on Good Regulatory Practice (NPGRP) held by Malaysia Productivity Corp (MPC) recently.
According to MPC’s data, Malaysia’s labour productivity dropped 5.4% last year as a result of the pandemic which has been impacting the local and global economic activities.
The NPGRP, which is an improvement to the National Policy on Development and Implementation of Regulations (NPDIR) launched in 2013, aimed to enhance Malaysia’s business environment and the people’s wellbeing by raising the country’s productivity growth and its competitive advantage.
Malaysia has embedded a good regulatory practice as a national policy, an important element in the national regulatory reform and deemed as a timely step during the Covid-19 recovery phases.
Mohd Zuki said the revision and improvement were made several years after the implementation of NPDIR to enable it to further correspond to the rules and regulations set by various ministries and agencies.
“This is a great achievement and a new starting point in terms of the formation of more comprehensive, effective and agile regulations.
“The impact of the implementation will continue to improve the efficiency of service delivery, enable cost savings as well as reduce the burden of excessive regulations on businesses and the people as a whole.
“The national recovery requires an important approach to balance the people’s health and the country’s well-being,” Mohd Zuki said.
He added that the NPGRP would facilitate the ministries and government agencies to formulate better policies and regulations as well as review and improve the existing policies.
“In this regard, I call on policymakers and regulators in all ministries and government agencies to act more proactively in developing quality regulations.
“You should also review the existing rules so that it focuses more on the wellbeing of the people and the prosperity of our country’s development,” he said.
The NPGRP has been distributed by the Prime Minister’s Department through the Circular No 1 of 2021 for all federal agencies to comply with the Regulatory Process Management System.
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
