KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia and Thailand opened a new road across their northern land border on July 10.
Prime Ministers Anwar Ibrahim and Anutin Charnvirakul jointly inaugurated the alignment linking Malaysia’s Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security complex at Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah, with Thailand’s new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex at Sadao in Songkhla.
The route is designed to carry travellers, commercial vehicles and cross-border freight between the two facilities.
The new alignment is scheduled to begin normal operations at 6 a.m. Malaysia time on July 11, according to a Malaysian Home Ministry notice reported by RTM. Thailand’s new permanent Sadao checkpoint will operate from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thai time and replace the existing permanent crossing, the Thai government said.
The Malaysia-side construction contract was originally valued at RM141.58 million. According to an earlier project report, the development includes a 900-metre, six-lane dual carriageway and a 300-metre service road leading to the tactical headquarters of Malaysia’s General Operations Force. It also covered replacement buildings for the Fifth Border Regiment camp, a final control post and a roofed gateway.
The opening followed bilateral talks in Putrajaya on July 9, when the governments agreed to simplify immigration and customs procedures and continue developing special border economic zones.
Anwar said, “We agreed also to proceed with the Special Border Economic Zones and to facilitate exchanges in immigration and customs between the two countries.” Neither government announced the zones’ locations, budgets or implementation dates.
Malaysia and Thailand are targeting US$30 billion in bilateral trade by 2027. Thailand was Malaysia’s sixth-largest trading partner globally and second-largest within ASEAN in 2025, when two-way trade reached RM118.57 billion. Trade totalled RM31.33 billion from January through March 2026, compared with RM27.35 billion during the same period in 2025.
About 40% of bilateral trade is transported as cross-border commercial cargo, according to Malaysian reporting on the leaders’ meeting.
