Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein today revealed that the government is working to cut down the number of existing standard operating procedures (SOPs) from 181 to just 10. The remark was part of the statement that the minister released after a meeting with Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, and Communications & Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa.
The intention to simplify the SOPs was something that has been announced by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin before but this is the first time that a specific target was revealed to the public. While the number of existing SOPs under the National Recovery Plan (PPN) is rather huge, they are actually spread across four phases and many of them may overlap with each other.
Nevertheless, cutting them down from 181 to just 10 still sounds like a massive challenge. Minister Hishammuddin expects the process to be completed in three weeks and assures that the government is committed to getting it done before the country moves on to the endemic stage which is expected to take place by the end of October.
Meanwhile, he has also revealed that the Special Committee on Pandemic Management has agreed to further loosen up restrictions that were placed on the economy and social sector. However, the details were not revealed by Minister Hishammuddin in his statement today as the actual announcement will be made by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob instead.
Additionally, the government is also looking into expanding the travel bubble to non-island destinations as well as allowing additional tourism activities. Gymnasium re-opening is being considered as well but the details will only be discussed in the next meeting between the four ministers.
On a related note, Minister Hishammuddin has also pointed out during a press conference today that no other destinations will be added to the travel bubble if Langkawi’s pilot project fails. Hence, please be mindful and adhere to all the SOPs if you are planning to take advantage of Langkawi’s travel bubble soon.
(Source: MKN / Telegram [pdf], Hishammuddin Hussein / Facebook, Bernama.)
