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KUCHING – The government has plans to implement the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) with Thailand to revive the country’s tourism industry, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.
The proposal is following his three-day visit to Thailand, which ended today, in the process boosting the development of the country's economic sector impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years.
“Besides this, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei have in principle also agreed to the proposed implementation of this VTL,” he said in his speech at the launch of the Citrawarna Keluarga Malaysia programme here that was officiated by Sarawak Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Taib Mahmud.
Ismail is confident that Malaysia can implement the land VTL by May this year.
He said the Health Ministry would be studying several proposals on Malaysia’s VTL with the neighbouring countries.
“The air VTL is easier to implement compared to land VTL, as travellers arriving at airports can be quickly screened (for Covid-19). However, we need to avoid creating long queues of vehicles when conducting screenings at land entry points.
“We have given several proposals to the Health Ministry to find the best way to facilitate and expedite the implementation of the land VTL. I would like to stress that this matter can be settled before Hari Raya (this year),” he told a press conference for Malaysian journalists here today.
He said the land VTL, particularly between Thailand and Malaysia, is important because it does not only involve tourism but also bilateral trade, especially border trade, which accounts for half of the Malaysia-Thailand trade totalling US$10.5 bilion (about RM44.1 billion).
Yesterday, Ismail and his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha held a meeting in conjunction with his maiden official visit to Thailand as prime minister.
Malaysia and Thailand have agreed in principle to implement the air, land and sea VTL to facilitate the movement of people between the two countries.
After the meeting, Ismail said the relevant ministries and agencies would hold discussions to work out the standard operating procedure for the reopening of borders soon, the VTL for Malaysia and Test & Go for Thailand.
He said Malaysia and Thailand had agreed to recognise their respective Covid-19 vaccination certificates, MySejahtera and Mor Prom, to support their efforts to reopen their borders.
“We will follow up with the digital vaccination certificate recognition and integration of the MySejahtera and Mor Prom applications to facilitate cross-border travel between the two countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ismail said Malaysia’s land VTL with Singapore and Brunei is important for the cross-border movement of people with these two countries.
“Almost 200,000 Malaysian workers commute between Malaysia and Singapore. Apart from this, at the Malaysia-Brunei border, those in Limbang and Lawas need to go through Brunei. Until today, they could not cross border yet,” he added.
Ismail Sabri said the VTL between Malaysia and Brunei was agreed upon as a result of his discussions with the Sultan of Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah during his recent visit to Brunei.
“This move will not only be able to revive Sarawak’s tourism industry but also boost the economy, especially in Miri, Limbang and Lawas, which border Brunei,” he said.
Ismail said the government’s initiative to reactivate the country’s tourism sector had started from the implementation of the Langkawi International Tourism Bubble (LITB) in November last year.
He said the initiative was a pilot project on readiness and preparedness of the tourism sector, including by industry players and relevant government agencies towards the new normal.
Although only three months old, he said the project had generated more than RM28 million in revenue after attracting 5,686 foreign tourists.
He said since its introduction, there have been no Covid-19 clusters caused by LITB tourists.
“The good feedback received from the parties involved in the implementation of LITB gives the government confidence to continue the LITB initiative until the country’s borders are fully opened later,” he said.
Ismail said in Budget 2022, the government also announced a special assistance of RM85 million to more than 20,000 tourism operators registered under the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, with payments to be made in March and May.
He said some 10,000 tourist guides who would each receive RM1,500, 5,592 travel agencies (RM9,000 per agency) and 3,100 homestay operators registered with Motac (RM1,800 per operator) were among those who would benefit from the aid.
“It is hoped the initiatives and measures taken by the government will revive the tourism sector and propel Malaysia as a destination of choice for global tourism,” he added. – Bernama, February 26, 2022