KUCHING, June 30 ― Allowing eateries to operate from 6am to 10pm would not solve the main troubles beleaguering the food and beverage (F&B) industry in Sarawak, said business owners.
Sarawak Restaurants Association chairman Kapitan Stanley Hu said the best possible scenario for this sector would be to allow dine-in again.
He said the extended operating hours would not impose much effect on restaurants, as the majority of those opting for takeaways from restaurants would have done it within certain hours, such as between 6pm and 8pm.
“It is generally of no effect to the industry. If possible, it’s best to allow customers to dine in again.
“For that to happen, the government would have to speed up the vaccination programme so that more people would be fully vaccinated and we could move on to the next phase, such as allowing dine-in at eateries,” he told The Borneo Post here.
Another suggestion would be to allow dine-in at eateries in zones with low or zero number of positive Covid-19 cases, said Hu, who is also a director of Lok Thian Restaurant.
“The government may look at allowing eateries in Green and Yellow zones to open for dine-in first,” he added.
Speaking on behalf of the association, Hu expressed hope that there would be more subsidies or financial aid for those in the restaurant business to tide over these difficult times.
“Although there’s the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU), some have yet to get it despite having applied for it. It would be good to have other forms of financial aid,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kuching Coffeeshop and Restaurant Owners Association committee member Kapitan Tan Yit Sheng said since the news broke about the extension of operating hours for eateries, he had gone around a few establishments here to gain feedback.
“Based on the feedback, many say the move is of no use to them.
“It is good to be allowed to open early at 6am to cater to the early-bird crowd, but to drag on until 10pm would be a waste of resources.
“For many operators of eateries, business volume is still the same but they still have to incur more expenses like workers’ pay, utilities, and also time. Now all these are depending on regular customers, not walk-ins.
“So some might stay open until 10pm to wait for their regular customers,” he said.
Tan, who runs Heng Ki Kopitiam at Gala City here, also said allowing dine-in would be the better solution, stating that it could even help reduce the number of Covid-19 cases as eatery owners would make sure that their customers would strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) so as to avoid being slapped with hefty fines.
“Covid-19 is expected to become an endemic later on ― a part of life that could not be avoided, so the people would have to learn to live with it.
“That means SOPand physical distancing must be in place at all times.
“The government is very strict when it comes to SOP for eateries.
Enforcement officers come around all the time.
“Thus, eatery owners would have to be very careful in making sure that their customers abide by the SOP, so that they would not get fined.”
Tan pointed out that while dine-in had not been allowed for seven weeks now, the number of cases in Sarawak remained ‘high and rising’.
“Now you see clusters in workplaces and factories. This is because people don’t have a proper place to eat, so they eat in their offices, in their pantry rooms; this has caused new clusters to emerge,” he said.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) had, on Monday, announced revisions to several SOP under the first phase of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
It said the revisions included the extended operating hours of eateries and restaurants from 6am to 10pm – but only for takeaway, drive-through or delivery services. ― Borneo Post
