VTL expected to be opened between Malaysia and Indonesia by early next year

GEORGE TOWN: The Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) is expected to be opened between Malaysia and Indonesia by early next year once several technical issues have been resolved.

Ambassador of Indonesia to Malaysia Hermono said a team of Indonesian officials visited the country last week to conduct a technical inspection on the proposed VTL.

"So far, the inspection has been conducted smoothly and the technical teams went to Singapore to conduct the same inspection there," he said.

Hermono said there were three technical issues being looked into, which are the interoperability of Malaysia’s MySejahtera and Indonesia’s Peduli Lindungi app; mutual recognition of vaccines and the standardisation of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) Covid-19 test.

He said after looking into these issues, both countries can open the travel corridor as was hoped by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in their meeting at Jakarta last month.

Malaysia and Indonesia had agreed to implement a travel corridor between the two countries through the Travel Corridor Arrangement or a VTL arrangement, as both countries are recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ismail Sabri reportedly said the relevant ministers would refine the initiative so that the border between the two countries - involving the Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur-Bali-Kuala Lumpur routes - could be opened.