KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Advertising Association is appealing to the State government to permit the advertising signage industry to resume operations.
The association’s chairman, Kenny Ho said that the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) by the government had affected all sectors, including the advertising business in Sabah.
“However, as a result of the cessation of operations, we have experienced problems like overdue costs such as the cost of renting premises, employee salaries, unproductive transport costs and many more. And because of these, we suffer huge losses and burdens, to the extent that some of our members are on the verge of closing their shop permanently,” he said.
Ho said this while leading a delegation from the association when paying a courtesy call to the Local Government and Housing Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun, who is also Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson at his ministry today.
Ho explained that the advertising industry is a relatively important industry, as those who are in this industry are connected to all areas of commerce and government.
“Our inability to operate will cause the related fields the inability to function. For example, the food industry will have no labels, while hospitals, government and the private sector will not have posters or signboards (such as the vaccine injection instruction signboards).
“In addition, government projects also need to have safety awareness billboards, and the same with the other related fields,” he said.
He said that Sabah has already entered the second phase of the National Recovery Plan and that many economic sectors were given the permission to operate by the Sabah government which includes dine-in, as announced by the Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Haji Noor.
Ho added that there were 80 association members in Sabah and appealed to the State government to give them special permission to resume operation.
He said that they were ready to accept any conditions and rules, including on the working hours as long as they were allowed to operate.
“We sincerely hope that our appeal will receive due attention, consideration and subsequent approval by the Sabah government, especially the Sabah Covid-19 Disaster Committee,” he said.
During the visit, Ho also handed over the appeal letter from the association and list of members who are operating in Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, Sandakan, Tenom, Keningau and Labuan to Masidi.
