It has practically brought to a halt the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions businesses in the country.
Positioned as an economic catalyst and gateway to South-East Asia, Mitec is the third largest MICE venue in the region, offering more than 51,000sq m of exhibition space and triple-volume exhibition halls.Its chief executive officer Gunther Beissel said the government’s implementation of the MCO to curb the spread of Covid-19 since March 18, followed by the conditional MCO since Oct 14, had brought the entire business event industry to a standstill.
“It can be a coalition of events industry associations and businesses, representing agencies, promoters, organisers, venues, suppliers and freelance communities, together representing thousands of professionals, ” Beissel elaborated. He highlighted that last year, from March to October, the centre had conducted over 1,070 events with 1.25 million delegates generating over RM730mil.
He suggests that the government ease restrictions imposed on business events in areas under the conditional MCO. On Budget 2021, he said there was no specific provision for the business events industry although they too had been hit hard by the pandemic. Continued subventions were extremely important but these would not be enough to keep the industry supply chain afloat, especially venues, hotels and even the airlines, which had been badly affected throughout these past months and were struggling to survive, he pointed out.
“We are bracing for the uncertainties as the fluid situation of the pandemic leads to changes in the SOP.“We are adapting to the ever- changing guidelines as adherence to them affects the type of events we are allowed to conduct, the number of people per event and many other details. “Organisers can adjust the number of participants for any event according to the severity of the pandemic, and also venue capacity.
“At least 5,610 highly skilled employees have been laid off since March, which is equivalent to 17% of the total industry workforce.