MITI makes corrective U-turn, car plants and suppliers allowed to resume operations
Jerrica · Jan 16, 2021 10:42 AM
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The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has once again updated the standard operating procedures (SOP) for the reinstated Movement Control Order (MCO), this time automotive plants, including vehicle assembly and component suppliers, will be allowed to continue operating for the duration of the country’s second MCO.
Ignore the 15-Jan date, the document was released on MKN's official Telegram channel at 12.25 am 16-Jan 2021
This is yet another U-turn from the MITI on the essential economic services SOP. Previously, when MITI first released the MCO SOP for essential services on 12 January 2021 (before the start of MCO), automotive factories and car workshops were allowed to operate.
This means that the Honda plant in Pegoh, Melaka will be allowed to continue work
But come later in the same evening, the ministry updated the list which saw automotive plants dropped from the list of essential services. This left car manufacturers scrambling to find an answer to the sudden stop work notice.
Second update of MITI's essential services list saw automotive plants dropped from the list of factories allowed to continue operating
The backtrack isn’t entirely a surprise though, as industry experts have predicted that MITI might update the list once again and allow automotive plants to start operations once again next week.
There isn’t a time in memory that doesn’t involve staring at cars. After discovering the excitement of watching Schumacher vs Hakkinen, Formula 1 became a major part of life. The love for cars and F1 ultimately led to a job with CAR Magazine. The untimely death of the magazine meant a hiatus from cars at lifestyle women’s magazine Marie Claire before another opportunity came knocking again.
