Penang Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Heritage Committee Chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said it would be important for 3E (evaluation, enforcement, and education) strategies to open up the economy.

He said that Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow's 3E strategy was important to achieve a win-win state in its efforts to restore the economy while taking public safety into account.

"The assessment shall assess and ensure that the sectors reopen slowly under such SOPs such as strict sanitation management and temperature monitoring.

"Enforcement means supporting enforcement efforts to ensure compliance with standard operational health procedures," he said in a statement.

Yeoh said balancing efforts to restore economic recovery and efforts to curb COVID-19 spread was necessary to ensure that people's jobs and livelihood will be minimally disrupted when all sectors reopened.

"There is a need to regenerate the economy slowly after more than 40 days of  Movement Control Order began as a priority in public health so that major financial losses which affect employment are not affected.

"However, without preparation, we cannot rapidly restart economic activities, as this risks jeopardizing the efforts we've made up to now," he said.

Yeoh also said that the Chief Minister's decision was to ensure that businesses and people have time to plan the SOP, including the hygiene and disinfection process that has now become the 'new norm.'

He urged the sectors to be vigilant and to follow the directions of the State government until the work is resumed on May 13 and not to misinterpret the situation in the light of preventive work on COVID-19.