Special lane for the vaccinated

ISKANDAR PUTERI: A special lane for Malaysian workers who have already received their vaccination in Singapore is being mulled by the governments of both countries, according to a Johor state exco member.

Datuk Mohd Izhar Ahmad (pic) said Malaysia and Singapore were studying the possibility of creating a special green lane pass for Malaysian workers working in the island republic.

“Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be meeting his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong early next month with the priority of reopening the two land checkpoints.

“This is not the first meeting between Malaysia and Singapore as many discussions have been

held before but it will be very important towards reopening the border, ” he said after flagging off the Johor Entrepreneur Corporation Ziarah Kasih programme held in conjunction with Ramadan here yesterday.

Mohd Izhar, who is in charge of the investment, entrepreneur development, cooperative and human resource committee portfolio, said the proposed special green lane was only for Malaysian workers who had already been vaccinated in Singapore.

However, he said several issues still needed to be ironed out before the proposal could be implemented.

“Among the requirements set by Malaysia and Singapore is to ensure that the Covid-19 situation is under control.

“The state government has been very proactive in that we will expedite the vaccination programme very soon, which will help to reopen the border with approval from Singapore’s government, ” he said.

On April 20, the state government said it would keep pushing for the reopening of its two land checkpoints with Singapore with a new standard operating procedure in June to create a travel bubble for those commuting regularly.

Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad earlier said that besides being vaccinated, the 100,000 workers going to Singapore would need to follow a fixed route to and from their workplace, and not be allowed to travel to other parts of the country.

“We want to have a mechanism to control the movement of our people. This means that they travel from Point A to Point B, similar to our lorry drivers and their co-drivers who have to commute daily to a specific destination in Singapore, ” he said.

Hasni said he hoped that the new SOP proposed by the Johor government would provide assurance for Singapore.