Chinese association urges govt to help entertainment industry amidst Covid-19 pandemic

Aaron Tay

KUCHING (April 22): The Federation of The Chinese Associations Sarawak is urging the government to waive license fees and provide subsidies to the entertainment industry in order to reduce the losses faced by them during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The association’s youth section treasurer Aaron Tay Kok Tung in a statement said that the entertainment industry, including massage centers, bars, karaoke restaurants and other entertainment venues, were the first ones to bear the brunt of the pandemic.

“When the Covid-19 situation gradually increased, they would be the first few industries to be shut down by the government, even though these entertainment venues are not responsible for the outbreak.

“According to an analysis, it has been more than a year since the Movement Control Order was implemented – in March last year. However, the entertainment industry has only been able to operate for less than five months, but they still have to pay for various fees, making them unable to make ends meet, and are depleting money at a rapid pace,” he said.

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Tay explained that during the five-months of operating, the business hours are intermittent. These kinds of implementations from the government makes the operating hours irregular and this severely affects the businesses of the industries.

Not only that, he said, the industries would still have to pay their employees’ salaries, shop rents, and others, and this was a huge impact towards them.

“Therefore, the government should provide supplementary subsidies for these industries, including exemption of license fees and grant employee allowances for the industry, and take practical actions to assist these industries to tide them over the difficult times,” he said.

He said that though he supports the various prevention measures implemented by the government in order to stop the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 virus, they should also consider the different problems faced by various industries and provide appropriate solutions for them to achieve a win-win situation.

In addition, Tay also called on the State government to restrict any entry into Sarawak during this period where those who want to enter the state must be quarantined in an isolation centre for 14 days first.

At the same time, he also urged the Sarawak government to speed up the pace of the vaccination so that the goal of achieving 70 per cent of Sarawakians being successfully vaccinated can be accomplished in order to protect the safety of all the people.

The post Chinese association urges govt to help entertainment industry amidst Covid-19 pandemic appeared first on Borneo Post Online.

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