Import and Export Management in Malaysia During COVID-19 Pandemic

This report analyzes the import and export management challenges faced by Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies key issues such as supply chain risks, fuel cost and availability, supply chain data management, shortages, manpower management, and macroeconomic challenges. The report details the negative impacts of the pandemic, including restrictions on movement, travel curbs, and economic shocks. It discusses specific challenges like volatility, shipment tracking difficulties, and the impact of fuel price increases. The report also addresses data management issues, product shortages, and manpower shortages, emphasizing the need for effective solutions to ensure a continuous supply of essential goods. Furthermore, the report highlights macroeconomic challenges like manufacturing and procurement issues and offers recommendations to mitigate these challenges and maintain a steady supply of essential commodities for Malaysian citizens during the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Import and export
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Challenges of management and operation of logistics management:..............................................3
Recommendations:...........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERNCES.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The recent spread of COVID-19 Has lead to whole world in a global lock down and there
has been a complete shock to the whole economy (Zinn, Goldsby, Tand Cooper, 2018). There is
a complete stoppage or may be difficulty in movement of goods from one place to another
especially when the movement is from one country to another it leads to generation of lot of
challenges to make sure that there is continues supply of the critical and basic amenities for
people in every country. In case of analysis there has been lot of negative impact of this virus as
there has been 2908 confirmed cases it has lead too restrictions being imposed on the movement
and travel curbs because of the spreading of this disease (Fernie. and Sparks, . eds, 2018) . There
has been a complete outbreak in Malaysia and it has lead too movement control order (MCO),
Government is ensuring that there is complete and continuous supply of the essential goods the
present report discusses about the responsibility in logical arrangements so that there is sufficient
supply of foods for all Malaysian citizens in this MCO. There are some basics challenges that are
being discussed and some recommendations in how to deal with these challenges in order to
ensure that there is continuous supply of the sufficient amount of goods during this pandemic
arrest in this country.
Challenges of management and operation of logistics management:
According to the logistics challenges there are some five major challenges that are part of
logistics management in Malaysia and can pose a threat for smooth import and export of
essential goods requirements. These five challenges and its impact on MCO are discussed below:
Supply chain risks and high amount of volatility and variability:
Volatility is a basic concept that is relates with what are people expecting form something
and what actually is happening in this business in the overseas. Supply chain is a planned process
and any deviation from the planned activities of this process can lead to high amount of
availability (KUMAR MANGLA and Luthra2018). There has been investment in large amount
of buffer inventories so that there is filling of such amount of gaps in normal situations when the
becomes are running in a normal scenario of economies. Such as there is negative impact on the
smooth running of overall process from a distribution network in Malaysia also in the situations
of economic slowdown there has been a disturbance that has been created because of the
distribution network and overall transportation options that is related with the flexibility &

responsiveness in this high volatile environment where everything is very unpredictable in the
present situation.
There is also a big issue and challenge for the Malaysian government that is related with the
tracking of shipments and its movement around different parts of the world. So, it has lead to
difficulty in importing of the essential products from other countries. There has been complete
difficulty in the logistics providers and the modes that are used for purpose of transportation of
goods from other places to their country (Luthra,. and Mangla, 2018). The major challenge is
here only that when government is not able to import products to their country then how it is
going to maintain the regular supply to all the people who are in urgent requirement for their
survival until the situation comes to normal. There is also delay because of different types of
supply chain risk that are associated with the visibility and organisation are making use of some
of the process of data sharing & demand planning so that they are able to make timely
communication across various departments & industries. It will also help the government in
actually understanding what is the presents scenario of various industries show are linked with
offering daily essentials to people on Malaysia. Volatility can be said to a very is a very big issue
that is related with the overall supply chain process.
Fuel cost and availability:
One of the recent challenges that are being faced because of the situations of COVID-19
virus is the availability of fuel in some countries and many countries are depended on imports
from other countries fulfilment of their fuel requirements. The prices of fuel have been suddenly
almost doubles because of its limited availability and higher demands across different countries.
There are limited financial resources that are present with every country and so is the case with
Malaysia (Mayyas, Stewardand Mann, 2019). The recent spread of virus requires high amount of
such funds to create beds, isolation areas for their patients who are suffering from this disease.
All this requires large amount of financial resources and because of limited funds it has becomes
very difficult for the Malaysian government to have enough funds to spend on the availability of
fuel and have proper transportation facilities so that the overall import of essential goods does
not gets affected.
So it can be said that both the availability of sufficient fuel for vehicles invoices
transportation and for other essential activities in the country. The government is suffering from
this challenges in how to make optimum utilisation of their funds in such a manner that they can

reap maximum benefits from it and at same time there can be regular and uninterrupted supply of
essential commodities for their citizens.
Supply chain data management & automation & analytics:
There has been a lot of difficulty in the way data and the overall information is being
managed in the present scenario of CPVID-19. It is a part of every step of the whole supply
chain management process. It is very essential in the process of supply chain management that
there must be data of the customer countries that has to be managed most effectively in order to
understand what are their basic requirement of different product and in what quantities. Each
quantity differs according to the requirement of a country (Panayides,., Borch. and Henk, 2018).
The major challenge has been of how to manage successfully the process of transmission of
end to end information that is the starting and imitation of information till the time i reach to the
exact location (TouboulicMcCarthy. and Matthews2020). There has been a presence of lot of
uncertainty in the whole process. There is a requirement to take into consideration some key
aspects such as diagnostics of supply chain, supplier performance and risk management of losing
the data. These are some of the key considerations that have to be effectively and timely
managed so that Malaysian government can get uninterrupted supply of various essential
products in the limited period of time.
Shortages:
There has been a complete shortage of products in this scenario of covid 19 that is actually
impacting the way the goods are being restored in warehouses. There has been a lock down and a
complete stoppage of functioning of many industries including those which are involved in
production of certain essential commodities. This is a major concern as when there will be no
production and then at some time it is going to lead towards shortage of product according to its
high demand. There has been a complete shift in the way and type of products which are being
demanded by people across countries and especially in Malaysia ( Big data and TAKASSE,
2019). Also it can be clearly observed from the demanding patterns of people that there is a
surging rise in the demand for non-discretionary goods and products. It has lead to variation of
shortages because of non production. So, in this situation again it is a big challenge for the
government that how will they be managing the industrial cycle of their country, there have been
many instances in which it becomes very important to start the industrial functioning to make

sure that at least the essential commodities and goods without which a person cannot survive
does not gets finished and is in abundance for at least for the people of their country.
Manpower management:
In the present scenario, there has been a big challenge that is availability of human resource
for performing the various functions that are associated with the overall functioning of and
reaching of final products to the consumer. There is requirement of labour in every step such as
in case of warehouse staff, drivers for transportation vehicles that is used for transferring of
product from one location to other (Abbasi, and Nilsson, 2016). The situation of COVID-19
there has been a fear in minds of people and they are not willing to leave their houses and even
those who are evolved in these functions it has become very difficult for the government of such
countries to make these people realise the importance of their services in this present situation of
crisis. It is the responsibility of the Malaysian government that they have to ensure that they are
to have sufficient amount of employees present to perform such important functions that is
required in the supply chain network of the organisation (Abou Maroun, Zowghi, . and Agarwal,
2019). There is a need to provide all the precautionary y measures to such employees and all the
scheduling solutions. Such efforts can lead to regular supply of raw materials for citizens of
Malaysia.
Key macroeconomic challenges:
Apart from the above discussed challenges there has been a surge in some of the challenges
that are specifically faced by the government of many countries and including Malaysia also this
challenge is growing with time. Such as in the overall supply chain network of various essential
commodities there has been some of the issues that are present (Bressanelli, Peronaand Saccani,
2019). First is the manufacturing issue that is manufacturing is a very complex process and in
present situation because of the limited availability of various resources it has become next to
impossible to carry on the manufacturing process of at least some of the commodities for
Malaysia. There is a massive dependency on the amount of raw materials that is required for
manufacturing of components but them again it also come from various other countries &
continents of the semi finished or finished goods that are being transported across different parts
of the world. This massive dependency on this logistics has carted manufacturing & exporting a
very difficult proposition and lead to high amount of disruption in the overall process of supply
chains.

Procurements is again a big challenge that is being faced by countries and in the present
situation there has been a difficulty of procurement of raw materials as there are some raw
materials without which there cannot be final products that can be made and they are imported
from other parts of the world (Cardenas, Pachecoand Dias Lopes, 2018). The pandemic that
actually stated from the china and spread to other different countries has created a string hitting
on Malaysia also and now it has become more difficult for this country to manage the risk
associated with the procurement of raw materials and making of final products.
Retailing has also been impacted from the present situation in Malaysia. Such as the
lockdown and the curfew scenario in this country that is taking place because of MOC
( Movement order control) has created a totally unique situation in this country. Many retailers
who are dealing in the essential commodities gave close their shutters as they are not able to
satisfy the demand of their customers in an appropriate manner. It is not common for many
people to stock their food & other different types of essential commodities for a longer duration
of time. The present unrest has created lot of panic among the people as it is actually not
stopping and going beyond weeks and months. Now, actually people do not posses idea about
the future and it leads to more panic situations as they want to collect goods and pile up so they
are making higher demands then normal requirements. It is leading to high amount of difficulty
for the government and the retailers to satisfy the demand of such demands as they are not able
to cater to those areas where there essential requirements and people are not able to fulfil the
most basic needs of food (Taniguchi, Thompson, . and Yamada, 2016). The demand of
essentials in some of the niche areas of this country is very high and especially for the people
who are below middle class and the lower class people of society who already do not posses nay
sufficient amount of resources to arrange such products in the normal functioning has lead to
more worsening situation for these people.

Recommendations:
There are several recommendations that can be drawn from the above discussed some of the
challenges faced by countries especially Malaysia and how to deal with such challenges so that
the common people do not suffer for the basic amenities of life in this situation of movement
control order (MCO), there are some recommendations for dealing with these callings and
reduction of its negative impact is mentioned below:
Use of digital technology: with all things going down and becoming difficulty to reach and
connect with people as there has been situations of social distancing that has been implemented
in many countries there is a requirement to make use of the technology and it is on form of
digital technology that has actually gained lot of importance since all these years. And in the
present scenario, it is the most trusted and easy form that can be used for communication
purpose. In case of supply chain management also some of the very common barriers can be
reduced.
Responsibility of retailers: It has become a very important responsibility of all the retailers
that they have to work closely with the companies and their entire supplier base. There are daily
meetings that are being conducted in order to make sure that they can establish timely
communication networks with their strategic suppliers so that they have the option of securing
the supply of various essential products and the high demand items. It must be the fast and
primary responsibility of especially those who are part of industries such as drug, food and mass
(FDM) categories for having a reliable and fast supply of products.
Merchandising of operations: It is very important for all the retailers that they have to look
for the their products and its orders to recalibrate to be in according with the demands of people.
It is the major responsibility at this point of time to make the required changes across various
functions such as planning of how to gather products from various wholesalers according to
demands of their customers, purchasing of these products according to the requirements and
demands and finally the most essential function is to manage the inventory and overall
operations. For this there is a requirement of revising the purchasing plans in this situation of
high demand. Directing of the inventories towards the locations where there is possibility to
easily it is nearby to the location of retailers and sales are also active in such areas. There is also
a need for re assigning of the marketing budgets so that there is overall operational flexibility for
the essential products.

Dealing with manpower shortages: It is the responsibility of the Malaysian government
that they have to ensure that they are to have sufficient amount of employees present to perform
such important functions that is required in the supply chain network of the organisation. There
is a need to provide all the precautionary y measures to such employees and all the scheduling
solutions. Such efforts can lead to regular supply of raw materials for citizens of Malaysia.
Learning’s: Base on various learning’s from this present scenario of COVID -19 it can be
said that there are many different ways that have been developed and which can help the
business in creating the supply chain after the post COVID-19 effects. There is a very urgent
requirement to reduce the overall dependency of countries on the physical labour for performing
various functions such as transportation, warehousing and logistics. It can be taken place only
with the help of core digital technologies and this has to be implemented not only by the
Malaysian government but countries all over the world. There is a need to make use of process
such as Industry 4.0 such as internet things, control towers, block chain, intelligence learning,
and machine learning that will actually enable forecasting of demand in such epidemic solutions.
Supply chain control tower: there must be a singles source that must be identified by
various companies and based on that source there should be proper and timely sourcing of raw
materials with high amount of consistency with minimum redundancy. It will lead to proper
supply Chain organisations and gathering of insights from the overall supplier performance and
supply Chain diagnostics. Further it will also benefit from the market intelligence & management
of various associated risks. It is also recommended that there must be proper supply chain
simulation in which new supply chain strategies have to be created so that there is minimization
of the overall impact of various constraints such as logistic constraints and other includes
operating model, business change, present and future demands. It will lead to identification of
best network for achievement of high service level across various steps of the supply chain
process.
The above discussed are some of the recommendations with regards to deal with the high
amount of challenges that are part of maintaining proper supply chain network by countries.
Supplying essential commodities to the people who require it very urgently is the most important
responsibility of the Malaysian government on present situation and above recommendations are
some of the ways that could help in overcoming with such challenges.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussed points that supply chain and various logistical
arrangements. There are many challenges that are related with the international logistics and
overall distribution system. It becomes very important to have some solutions to deal with such
type of challenges in the most effective manner so that it does not harm the normal citizens and
in such situation of economic slowdown also they are not getting impacted in a negative manner.

REFERNCES
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