Malaysia's parliament convenes with eye on Covid-19, economic recovery

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 28 Malaysia's first parliament session of the year convened on Monday as the country seeks to recover from the effects of Covid-19 while coping with an Omicron fuelled pandemic surge.

The session will run from February 28 to March 24 following its opening by Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah in which he called on all members of parliament (MPs) to cooperate in ensuring the country's recovery.

"For 2022, let us continue to strengthen our strategies and resilience to face the challenges posed by Covid-19," he said, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The nation's economic recovery needs to be accelerated so that our nation will not be left behind. Ease the people's affairs to help them rebuild their lives with a sense of security, peace, and wellbeing for the sake of our beloved country," he added.

The country is seeing a surge in new Covid infections, with 32,070 cases being reported last Thursday, the highest since the pandemic began in 2020. The daily cases remained over 20,000 as of Monday.

Malaysia is also eyeing the reopening of its international borders, with Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin saying last week that the date and plan to do so has been finalised and will be announced by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob soon.

Malaysia has already implemented a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) with Singapore and is in talks with Brunei and Thailand for similar schemes.