M’sian & S’porean PMs to Meet on 4 May in S’pore; Will Discuss Reopening of Borders

By
Zhi Hao
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Travel has become a thing of fantasy, almost a forgotten myth for a long, long time.

Never mind those famous banana cakes. Never mind the absolute value you can get across the Causeway.

At this point, we’re just craving for a whiff of that air. That Malaysian air.

A scent that we may, may, just be able to experience again within the next few months.

M’sian & S’porean PMs to Meet on 4 May in S’pore; Will Discuss Reopening of Borders

According to The Straits Times, the leaders of Malaysia and Singapore will be convening on 4 May to discuss a bevy of issues…

Including a potential reopening of the border.

The revelation was unveiled by Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who added that the Johor government intends to reopen the border within the next two months.

However, the move can only materialise if Singapore consents to give the go-ahead.

“Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be making an official visit to Singapore to meet his counterpart Lee Hsien Loong on May 4,” he said.

“The discussion process is still ongoing. Singapore Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan recently visited our country and we briefly discussed the matter.

“I will make sure that this is in the agenda to be discussed between Muhyiddin with Lee.”

For those unaware, Dr Balakrishnan had travelled across the causeway on 23 March to meet Mr Hishammuddin.

It was then that both nations agreed to work towards the recognition of each other’s vaccine certificates, in a bid to enable cross-border travel.

The existing Reciprocal Green Lane and the Periodic Commuting Arrangement will also progress once again.

Reopening Of Borders

The reopening of borders was actually due to commence last year, a few months after the emergence of the pandemic.

Like the Hong Kong air travel bubble, however, a sudden spike in cases across the Causeway meant that we had to shelve those plans aside for the greater good.

Since then, Malaysia has implemented several measures to contain the outbreak, and has also professed an intention to reopen the borders for the sake of their tourism industry.

According to Malay Mail, Director-General Datuk Musa Yusof pointed out last year that Singapore alone constitutes a whopping 65% of Malaysia’s incoming tourists.

Musa also revealed how tourism in Malaysia was down by 68.2% within the period of January 2020 to June 2020.

So in a sense, you can kind of understand where they’re coming from, and why they’re hopeful of the measure’s success.

And for the record, these sentiments go two-way across the Causeway.

Feature Image: SirAkbar17 / Shutterstock.com

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]