The Ayala group’s power generation platform is revving up a construction binge overseas as it gears up, along with its partners, to build a second project in India—a 70-megawatt solar farm in the Gujarat state priced at $36 million.
AC Energy said in a statement the facility was expected to go online in the first half of 2021, delivering 50 MW into the grid, but with capacity peaking at 70 MW.
This was disclosed just three months after announcing a 100-MW solar project in Rajasthan state.
Dubbed Paryapt Solar, the Gujarat facility is being developed by UPC-AC Energy Solar, a joint venture with UPC Solar Asia Pacific.
Paryapt Solar will supply energy to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. through a 25-year contract that UPC-AC Energy Solar won through competitive bidding.
“India has emerged as a country with one of the biggest renewable energy expansion programs, with support from the government and investors driving the growth,” AC Energy said.
The state of Gujarat alone is targeting to have 8,000 MW of solar power by 2022.
AC Energy earlier this year announced its plans to integrate its international business. It aspires to become the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with plans to build a portfolio of 5000 MW of renewables-based capacity by 2025.
Through its partnership with UPC Renewables, AC Energy has invested in PT UPC Sidrap Bayu Energi, developer of a 75-MW wind farm in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
The partnership was more recently expanded with the development of two wind projects in Vietnam, which has a combined capacity of 60 MW. INQ
Indonesia to launch sovereign wealth fund in January next year
InternationalOct 21. 2020Deputy State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo
By Jakarta Post
Indonesia will launch its own sovereign wealth fund in January next year as the government seeks to attract more investment and support the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Deputy State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said on Tuesday the government would soon establish the fund to handle government investments. The establishment of the sovereign wealth fund, which will be called the Indonesia Investment Authority, was included in the Job Creation Law.
“We will launch the Indonesia Investment Authority soon as the Job Creation Law mandates its establishment,” he told a virtual discussion but did not go into more details.
The government is preparing Rp 75 trillion (US$5.1 billion) in capital for the nation’s sovereign wealth fund as global heavyweights from the United States to the United Arab Emirates have expressed interest to join.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Rp 30 trillion of the capital would be in cash, while the remaining would be in the form of shares in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and other state assets.
The law has met with widespread protests and criticism from labor unions and civil groups over the potentially negative impacts it could have on labor rights and the environment, although the government’s goal is to attract investment, boost economic growth and create jobs.
The fund is aimed at attracting Rp 225 trillion in investment, with the United Arab Emirates, Japanese conglomerate Softbank and the US International Development Finance Corporation (IFDC) already lining up to invest in the fund, officials said previously.
“The establishment of the sovereign wealth fund is aimed at optimizing asset value in the long-term as part of the efforts to support sustainable development,” the law states.
However, it remains unclear where the wealth fund will be invested, although Sri Mulyani mentioned a combination of development funds and stabilization funds.
Officials have previously mentioned projects in sectors such as infrastructure, health care, energy and resources, tourism and technology. Sovereign wealth funds elsewhere also invest in financial markets.
Key machines for long cherished Rooppur power plant arrive in Mongla
A nuclear reactor and a steam generator, the key components of the first unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, arrived in Bangladesh yesterday, paving the way for completing the main phase of the mega project.
Traversing 14,000km, a ship carrying the equipment reached Mongla Sea Port in Khulna from Russia around 4:00pm yesterday. The components weigh 673.6 tonnes, said project officials.
“The arrival marks a major milestone in the construction of our dream project with a total capacity of 2,400MW,” Md Shawkat Akbar, project director of the nuclear power plant construction project, told The Daily Star.
The ship carrying the VVER-1200 reactor pressure vessel and the steam generator left for Bangladesh on August 20. The components were manufactured at the “Atommash” plant in Volgodonsk, the largest nuclear engineering production site in Russia. The reactor vessel weighs 333.6 tonnes and the steam generator 340 tonnes.
Now, these will be first shifted to a special barge for transportation to the Rooppur construction site in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila, about 160 kilometres northwest of the capital.
Those will then be sent through rivers from Mongla via Kawkhali, Barisal, Chandpur, Mawa and Rajbari to the newly constructed Rooppur river port near the power plant site.
The special barge carrying the components is expected to leave Mongla port on November 5 and reach Rooppur river port on November 21, according to a press release by the science and technology ministry.
In easy terms, a nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled and sustained at a steady rate. The life cycle of a reactor is 60 years with the possibility of further extension, according to Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom.
Each reactor unit comprises a reactor and four circulation loops, with each loop having circulation pipelines, a reactor coolant pump and horizontal steam generator.
Amid growing demand for electricity, the government moved to build the country’s first-ever nuclear power plant in Pabna and gave Rosatom the task of implementing it. The government put this ambitious mega project on the list of 10 top priority projects or fast-track projects for completing it on time.
The power plant will have two units — Rooppur Unit-1 and Unit-2 — with a power generation capacity of 1,200MW each. A third-generation technology is being used to construct the plant with a five-layer security system.
The first unit is expected to go into commercial operation by 2023 and the second one by 2024.
The foundation stone of the Tk 113,092-crore power plant was laid in October 2013 and construction began on 1,062 acres of land in November 2017.
Project officials said that as of August this year, the project saw 37 percent progress and there will be a major leap in its implementation once the reactor is installed.
“The real progress will be visible from January next year,” said a project official seeking anonymity.
Md Shawkat Akbar said, “The reactor for the second unit will arrive in the country soon.”
The work of loading uranium fuel to the first reactor will begin in February, 2023, he mentioned.
The project director said they expect to supply power to the national grid from April 2023 on a test basis, and that there will be a test run for a year.
Project officials said the containment walls of the first reactor building have already been built, and construction of the second building will be completed by next year.
The reactor support truss in Unit-1 has already been installed. The purpose of the support truss is to fasten the reactor vessel and to bear its weight loads.
Besides, the work of manufacturing other machinery and equipment for the plant is going on in full swing, mentioned the officials.
They said the government plans to meet 9 percent of the country’s electricity requirement from nuclear power. It also seeks to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by the middle of the next decade when both reactors of the new power plant will be in operation.
With the first nuclear power plant at Rooppur, Bangladesh will become the third Asian country — after India and Pakistan — to harness the power of atoms.
Nuclear power plants built with VVER-1200 reactors are characterised by an unprecedented level of safety, which allows them to be classified as generation “3+”.
Hong Kong leader seeks Beijing’s aid to revive economy
InternationalOct 21. 2020Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor
By China Daily
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she has sought the central government’s help in finding new growth engines and fortifying existing advantages to revive the special administrative region’s battered economy.
Support has been sought mainly in four areas — financial services, innovation and technology, the aviation sector and projects to improve people’s livelihoods, Lam said in a newspaper interview days before she is expected to visit Beijing to present her proposals to the central authorities.
Support has been sought mainly in four areas — financial services, innovation and technology, the aviation sector and projects to improve people’s livelihoods, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a newspaper interview
The new policy initiatives are also expected to be the highlight of her annual policy address this year. Originally scheduled to deliver the address on Oct 14, Lam postponed it last week and now intends to deliver it by the end of November.
Speaking to the newspapers Wen Wei Po and Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Lam revealed she proposed to the central government the expansion of mutual access to financial markets between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong to boost the city’s status as an international financial center.
Greater and deeper mutual access will also be beneficial to Hong Kong’s offshore renminbi business, she said.
Propelling innovation and technology has been on Lam’s agenda since she took office in 2017. It dovetails with her proposal to the central government, seeking support to join hands with Shenzhen in building a world-class innovation and technology hub.
Noting that Hong Kong should not just focus on itself, Lam said she thinks the cooperation between the two cities will definitely produce the effect that “one plus one is greater than two”.
Lam also revealed that she is in talks with Shenzhen on a joint program to attract top scientists, especially those who plan to return from the United States.
The SAR government is considering attracting overseas scholars by providing more teaching posts and resources such as lab facilities, and allowing them to come back with their research and research teams, she explained.
Also on her list are requests for support for Hong Kong’s pandemic-hit aviation sector and Hong Kong International Airport.
Confident government
The reopening of border checkpoints with the mainland is also on the list of Lam’s proposals, as the pandemic has forced their closure for about nine months and this situation is not expected to change as Hong Kong continues to report new cases of coronavirus infection.
Lam said that Hong Kong residents currently need a more confident government and a clearer blueprint regarding the city’s future. Residents will be more confident about the city if more detailed measures backed by Beijing can be included in her next policy address, she added.
Lam said she had received a positive response after submitting her proposals to the central authorities.
But it will take time to allow the range of policies to get off the ground, as many central-level authorities are involved, she said. That’s why it’s better for her to explain in person why these policies are necessary for Hong Kong and to discuss how the measures could be implemented, according to Lam.
Business leader Lo Man-tuen agreed with Lam’s efforts to get central government help to deal with the difficulties the city is facing.
The chairman of Wing Li Group (International) Ltd said Hong Kong residents would be glad to see a policy address with more initiatives supported by the central government to help the city revive its battered economy.
The governments of Japan and China are set to agree this week to allow businesspeople and expatriates to resume traveling between them, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
Japan and China have strong economic ties, and this move is aimed at boosting their economies, which have been hit hard by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
According to Japanese government sources, the envisaged agreement will allow mainly businesspeople to make short-term trips. They will be exempted from the 14-day quarantine on condition that they take virus tests prior to departure and upon arrival; submit in advance the address of their accommodations; and restrict their movements to work-related locations.
Expatriates will be allowed to make mid- to long-term stays, but will not be exempted from the 14-day quarantine.
Tokyo and Beijing have been negotiating the arrangement, as the spread of infections in China has been under control recently with only a few dozen cases confirmed per day.
China will be the fourth country to agree with Japan on the resumption of short-term trips, and the 11th country and region to agree on the resumption of mid- and long-term stays.
According to the Japanese government, about 373,000 people from China entered Japan for business purposes in 2019, more than from any other country or region.
In 2017, there were about 32,000 Japanese companies in China, also more than in any other country or region.Speech
InternationalOct 21. 2020Underwater image of lion fish and coral reef Photo credit: The Statesman
By The Statesman
On an annual basis, coral reefs release their gametes (reproductive cells) simultaneously. This phenomenon is most likely prompted by the right phase of the lunar and solar cycles as well as optimum water temperature.
All coral reefs start off as a single polyp. A polyp is essentially a small tissue from the surface inside the body, somewhat similar to a sea anemone. Stony coral species live in colonies and discharge calcium carbonate, which acts as an external skeleton. Like jellyfish and sea anemone, which are their relatives, coral polyps have tentacles that are used to catch food. The tentacles are tucked away during the day, but reach out to catch their prey, mainly plankton, by stinging them.
On an annual basis, coral reefs release their gametes (reproductive cells) simultaneously. This phenomenon is most likely prompted by the right phase of the lunar and solar cycles as well as optimum water temperature. Millions of eggs and sperm rise to the surface and undergo fertilization – turning the ocean into a bright blizzard-like setting which can sometimes be seen from space!
However, due to the rise in water temperatures and ocean pollution, the timing of the release of gametes in some coral species has shifted and some corals are spawning out of sync. This has been attributed to the rise in water temperatures and ocean pollution. Missing the window by a few minutes can lead to lower fertilization rates, while missing the window by hours or days suggests that individual corals are unable to fertilise. The threats climate change poses to synchronized coral spawning have not been studied, but its links to global warming and coral bleaching have been well established.
Corals can reproduce asexually and sexually. When a coral reproduces asexually, new clonal polyps bud off from their respective parent polyps and begin to expand and establish new colonies. Most stony coral species are broadcast spawners, which means they release a plethora of eggs and sperm into the water, distributing their offspring over a large area. The eggs and sperm form planktonic larvae called planulae by means of fission. Once the planulae are formed, they swim back down and settle on a site consisting of its favourable conditions and will form colonies which will progressively become larger.
This phenomenon occurs over the course of a few days or a week. This is done because different species will release their gametes on different days in an attempt to prevent the hybridisation of species. This opens up the possibility of the use of evolved reproductive strategies by the corals, which, if studied to a further extent, could help us understand the science behind the ‘blizzard’.
Since colonies may be separated by long distances, the timing of the release of gametes must be precise, and usually occurs in response to various environmental cues or stimuli. The spawning occurs with respect to temperature, day length and the rate at which temperature changes. While the date of spawning depends on the lunar cycle, the minute at which this event occurs is set by the solar cycle. This exposes the topic to a myriad of questions, such as how do these simple yet amazing creatures manage to tell the time of the lunar month and sunset, with only a simple nerve net and no specialized organs?
Inside the body of a coral are highly productive algae. The algae use carbon in the water and energy from the sun to photosynthesise, and as a result the algae give approximately 95 per cent of this produced energy to the coral. In return, the algae get its essential intake of nitrogen to thrive. This is an example of a symbiotic relationship, and an example of a delicate communication process between the algae and the coral. For this, the algae have to constantly remind the coral that they belong there, and essentially tell the coral to ignore its presence. Otherwise the coral would consider the algae to be a parasite or an invader, and attack and kill it.
If the algae growth does get out of hand, the coral will send out a ‘distress call’, a chemical which will attract the Gobi fish. This allows the Gobi fish to eat as much of the algae as the coral wants. In protected areas where fishing is non-existent, coral reefs thrive. However, where there is overfishing, the coral reefs wither and die.
A further understanding about the timing and synchrony of coral spawning is not only beneficial for understanding the ecology of coral reef ecosystems, but the management side as well. There is a deficit with respect to data regarding timing of spawning from many coral reefs, particularly from equatorial regions. To understand this phenomenon, further research should be undertaken. Perhaps there is more to it than what meets the eye, like the use of telepathy or a particular wavelength of signals, a revolutionary form of evolved communication.
Corals are under increasing stress due to climate change, thermal stress, and light pollution. Protecting coral reefs should be as much of a focus of sustainable development as anything else. Future generations have every right to experience this little explored, least understood, beautiful aspect of nature, one that may even be supporting human lives in ways we do not comprehend.
The writer is a student of the Jindal School of Environment and Sustainability, Sonipat.
MANILA, Philippines — Corrupt immigration officers have pocketed some P40 billion in bribe money since 2017 by facilitating the entry of Chinese nationals or assisting the departure of trafficked people at the airport, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Hontiveros said the so-called pastillas scheme generated some P30 billion in kickbacks from 3.8 million Chinese arrivals shared among officers at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and P2 billion in bribes from Chinese tourists under the visa-upon-arrival (VUA) racket.
The rest was reportedly earned through payola for the hassle-free departure of trafficked people, she said.
“We will get to the bottom of this. This house of cards will fall. It is not a matter of if but when,” Hontiveros said at the seventh hearing of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality on the money-making scams in the bureau.
The pastillas scheme—so-called because the bribe money is rolled in white wrapper like the milk candy—involved BI officers who allowed the smooth entry of Chinese nationals to the country in exchange for a P10,000 “service fee.” Many of the Chinese tourists intended to work for Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).
“Our estimate is that the masterminds have pocketed P30 billion. That’s based on the arrival data of Chinese nationals who are non-VUA. As for VUA, another revenue stream, the kickbacks go straight into the pockets of some officials,” Hontiveros said.
Based on BI figures, some 4 million Chinese nationals have entered the country since 2017.
“The numbers are staggering,’’ Hontiveros said, pointing out that the figure was even higher than the entire population of Quezon City, the most populous city in Metro Manila with 3 million residents. (See related story on Page A5.)
Of the 4 million Chinese, some 3.8 million were non-VUA applicants, while around 150,000 were VUA applicants, according to the senator. About 3 million of the non-VUA applicants were believed to have paid the extra P10,000 “service fee’’ in the pastillas scam, based on the testimonies of whistleblowers Allison Chiong and Jeffrey Dale Ignacio.
“The cash enters the airport and is distributed among the IOs (immigration officers),” Hontiveros said.
As for questionable VUA transactions, the bribe allegedly goes “straight to the main office,” where the visas are approved, the senator said.
Chiong earlier identified Red Mariñas, who was chief of the bureau’s Ports Operations Division before he retired, and his subordinate, Erwin Ortañez, chief of the Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU), as the leaders of the racket.
He named those working under Ortañez as Glen Comia, Bien Guevarra and Danieve Binsol, who handled Terminals 1 to 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport and their deputies Billy Cadang, Anthony Lopez and Arlan Mendoza.
None of these officials were among the 19 recommended for prosecution by the National Bureau of Investigation to the Ombudsman, Chiong said. “They are the bosses. The bosses hold positions in TCEU because TCEU is the one in control. That is the backbone of the syndicate,” he told a Senate hearing on Sept. 22.
Mariñases
Red Mariñas, along with his father, Maynardo, who headed the Special Operations Communications Unit before his retirement, appeared at Tuesday’s hearing to deny his involvement in the scam.
He also denied having a contact in the Office of the Ombudsman as Chiong allegedly claimed in a meeting with Ignacio.
But in the same hearing, Chiong said Red Mariñas achieved notoriety at the airport because he allegedly used the proceeds of the pastillas racket to fund his 2019 campaign for mayor of Muntinlupa City. Mariñas ran under the National Unity Party and lost to reelectionist Jaime Fresnedi of the Liberal Party.
“The Mariñas family has profited greatly from this, but the question remains: Who are their protectors?” Hontiveros said.
Based on a copy of Red Mariñas’ statement of contributions and expenditures for his poll campaign obtained by the senator’s office, the former immigration official declared P1 million in expenses.
“One million pesos to run for mayor? That’s not even enough to run for barangay captain,’’ Hontiveros said.
The senator noted that the Mariñases were appointed heads of their respective divisions in July 2016 by then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
In 2017, Aguirre issued Department Order No. 41, which allowed Chinese citizens to enter the Philippines without a visa issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Previous Senate hearings showed that VUAs were processed by travel agencies, many of which only required a mere screenshot of the applicant’s passport sent via the WeChat app.
“The person involved could have been trafficked by a syndicate, but as long as she or he had no derogatory record on paper, then that person would have been able to enter the country with a VUA,” Hontiveros said.
‘Meant for Chinese’
At the hearing, Aguirre, who quit his post in April 2018, confirmed that his order was “meant for Chinese nationals,” but he said he had no role in the implementation of the VUA policy.
“The best person to answer that is the commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration,” he said.
Hontiveros said the BI rackets practically rolled out the red carpet for the “online gambling industry and the cross-border trafficking of women.”
Such huge amounts of cash were enough for public officers who had just lost their overtime pay to “live the high life, drinking expensive alcohol in high-class nightclubs and vacationing abroad almost monthly,” Hontiveros said, noting that there was even money to finance a run for election.
TOKYO – Japan and Indonesia have agreed to strengthen their security ties, through such measures as expediting talks on the export of Japanese defence technology and by having their defence and foreign ministers meet soon.
This reflects concerns over growing Chinese regional assertiveness, and comes as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the presidential palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, on Tuesday (Oct 20).
Mr Suga, who is the first foreign leader to visit Indonesia since the Covid-19 pandemic, was greeted with a 19-gun salute.
He arrived from Vietnam, and Japanese diplomats said that the four-day two-nation trip was meant to symbolise Japan’s continued commitment and support to Asean.
While seen as a greenhorn on foreign affairs, Mr Suga follows in the footsteps of his predecessor Shinzo Abe, who also visited Vietnam and Indonesia first after he became prime minister in December 2012.
The Asean initiative is built on such principles as transparency and respect for international law, with the regional bloc “being an honest broker within the strategic environment of competing interests”.
Mr Suga told a news conference, with Mr Joko beside him, that their defence and foreign ministers will meet “in the near future” under the so-called two-plus-two framework.
This will be the first meeting between the ministers since 2015, and Indonesia is the only Asean nation with which Japan has a “two-plus-two” arrangement.
Mr Joko said that closer cooperation between Japan and Indonesia was critical amid the “increasingly sharp rivalries between the world’s great powers”, alluding to the intensifying clash between the United States and China.
But he added he hoped that the South China Sea will “continue to be peaceful and stable”.
On Monday, in Hanoi, Mr Suga agreed in principle to a military equipment and technology export pact with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Vietnam is one of the claimants in territorial disputes over the South China Sea. While Indonesia is not a claimant state in the dispute, its exclusive economic zone overlaps with China’s “nine-dash line” blanket claim over large swathes of the waterway.
Japan is also encouraging its companies to diversify their supply chains so as to reduce their reliance on China, with the risk of concentrating factories in a single market having been made evident by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Mr Joko said he appreciated the investments made by Japan, which is regarded in Indonesian circles as a strategic partner in the economic sector.
Mr Suga vowed to promote cooperation in infrastructure projects such as the mass-rapid transit, the Jakarta-Surabaya semi-fast train, the construction of the Patimban port, the construction of the outer islands, as well as cooperation to increase economic resilience.
He also committed 50 billion yen (S$642.44 million) in long-term, low interest loans to Indonesia to help it cope with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sum set aside for the loans comes on top of another 50 billion yen that was pledged in August through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The Japanese and Indonesian leaders also agreed to begin talks on a “travel corridor” for business travellers, as well as to resume travel for nurses and care worker trainees.
GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc. has reached a long-awaited pact with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay more than $2 billion for the bank’s role in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal, and the deal may be announced within days, according to people familiar with the matter.
The accord, part of an international action, will let the parent company avoid a U.S. criminal conviction, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing the confidential talks. The payment to the Justice Department is broadly in line with the bank’s prior reserves and analysts’ estimates.
The deal, expected to come just weeks before the U.S. presidential election, would remove uncertainty for the bank following years of investigations and negotiations with the Justice Department over the firm’s fundraising for the 1MDB investment fund.
It follows an agreement in July to settle a related probe with Malaysia, in which the bank promised to pay $2.5 billion. Malaysia dropped criminal charges against the New York-based company in early September.
A representative for Goldman Sachs declined to comment, and representatives for the Justice Department didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
In all, Goldman Sachs may pay roughly $5 billion once accords with Malaysia, the Justice Department and other agencies are tallied together.
In Singapore, authorities plan to levy a financial penalty and issue a warning with conditions, and if the company breaches them, Goldman Singapore could be prosecuted, people familiar the matter said. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, Attorney-General’s Chambers and police didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Probes of the Wall Street firm focused on its work raising $6.5 billion in 2012 and 2013 for the fund formally known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd., much of which was later allegedly siphoned off by people connected to the country’s former prime minister, Najib Razak. Goldman’s investment-banking group, led at the time by now-Chief Executive Officer David Solomon, collected $600 million from the bond sales.
Authorities in Asia, the U.S. and Europe have spent years tracing out the conspiracy and tracking down cash and assets around the globe, including condos, jewelry and art.
Goldman has long blamed rogue employees, asserting it had no idea the money it helped raise would be diverted from development projects. One former Goldman Sachs partner, Tim Leissner, pleaded guilty in the U.S. to conspiring to launder money and violating foreign bribery laws. Another executive was charged with foreign bribery offenses. – Bloomberg
Nearly one million office workers must work from home from Oct 22, says Ismail Sabri
InternationalOct 21. 2020Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob
By The Star
PUTRAJAYA: Nearly one million private and public sector workers who are in the management and supervision categories in Selangor, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya – which are under a conditional movement control order (MCO) – have been directed to work from home effective Oct 22.
Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this decision by the National Security Council is aimed to limit the movement of people and prevent new Covid-19 infections.
“This is a directive, not a proposal or a suggestion by the government. Workers in several categories will work from home.
“The full list of those affected as well as standard operating procedures will be issued by the International Trade and Industry soon, ” he said on Tuesday (Oct 20).
The public service director-general will issue a list for civil servants to refer to, he added.
The decision will affect around a million workers – 800,000 from the private sector as well as 200,000 civil servants.
Ismail Sabri said among employees who will have to continue to work from the office are those in the financial sector, enforcement as well as welfare officers.
“This directive to work from home depends on how long the area is under conditional MCO. Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will be under the order until Oct 27.
“If the order is not extended then workers will only have to work from home for five days.
“If it is extended further, then this directive will have to be followed until the order is lifted, ” he said.
Those who have to come to the office will be required to undergo swab tests and Socso contributors will not have to pay for the test, he added.
Deputy State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo 
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor 
Underwater image of lion fish and coral reef Photo credit: The Statesman 
Risa Hontiveros 
Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob 
