PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – The website of Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) crashed on Monday (April 13), the first day of applications to reopen certain businesses, as more than 100,000 people flooded its servers.

The government last week said small businesses from laundrettes to hardware and electrical shops could reopen in the third phase of the country’s Movement Control Order (MCO), but these small businesses must first apply to Miti on Monday, and get its approval to do so.

Attempts to access the website were unsuccessful and an error message was displayed.

Miti had said on its Twitter account that the application process for companies would be fully digital.

It added that no documents had to be uploaded but applicants should prepare all relevant information beforehand.

Miti later said that its online system for applications to reopen businesses was being temporarily shut down from 2pm to 4pm on Monday (April 13).

It said the ministry started receiving applications at 9am, and saw up to 176,000 users within the first two hours.

“We found that the majority of visitors are not companies but individuals trying to access the portal. The extremely high number of visitors do not reflect the number of companies in the approved sectors.

“Therefore, we will reconfigure the application system to ensure that only companies that are allowed to operate can access the application system,” said the ministry.

Malaysia first imposed its MCO on March 18 to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus, and then extended its by another two weeks to Tuesday (April 14).

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said last Friday that the curbs would be extended by yet another two weeks in the third phase until April 28, but this time around the government would allow a range of businesses to reopen in order to breathe some life into the stalled economy.

These business would join supermarkets and wet markets, medical shops and food outlets which had remained open throughout the MCO.

The government had also earlier included barber shops and hair salons, and optometric shops as businesses that could apply to reopen, but on Monday rescinded that decision.

Faced with the crashed Miti servers, Twitter user Pan Yau Seng commented that the ministry should have anticipated the high traffic volume and be aware of its servers’ capacity.

“They should have increased the capacity before asking us to log in and released the forms to the public earlier,” said Mr Pan.

In response, Miti said the portal was temporarily inaccessible as “more than 100,000 companies have applied so far”.

“Please keep trying and the server will direct you when a slot is available. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Thank you,” it tweeted.

As of Sunday (April 12), Malaysia recorded a total of 76 deaths and 4,683 cases of Covid-19 – the highest in the region.

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