Malaysia aims to reopen to international tourists in November, and travellers from neighbouring Singapore could be among the first to be allowed into the country, according to the Malaysian tourism minister, Nancy Shukri.
Shukri will be meeting officials from Singapore next week to discuss resuming cross-border travel between the two countries. She added Malaysia would be opening up to Singapore ‘very soon.’ She claimed that an arrangement with Singapore will be worked out and that she’s very optimistic that it should be by November.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 300,000 people crossed the Malaysia-Singapore land border each day, while the air route between Singapore and Malaysia’s capital city Kuala Lumpur was one of the busiest globally.
Currently, Malaysian citizens working in Singapore, and Singapore citizens working in Malaysia can cross the land border under a bilateral arrangement called the Periodic Commuting Arrangement, if they meet certain requirements.
Outside of that scheme, people allowed to enter Malaysia, including its citizens, are those with diplomatic passports and those with approval from immigration authorities. All arrivals must undergo a seven-day quarantine if they’re fully vaccinated, and 10 days if they’re partially or not vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Singapore has opened up quarantine-free travel, with conditions, to vaccinated travellers from some countries such as the US and the UK, but not to those from Malaysia.
Singapore groups countries and regions into four categories based on the risk of Covid transmission and sets its border measures accordingly. Malaysia is placed in category IV, which comprises places deemed to have the highest risk.
Malaysia’s tourism ministry has proposed to the government to allow fully vaccinated international visitors into the island resort of Langkawi starting next month.
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