PM confirms Malaysia's borders will reopen soon

JOHOR BAHRU: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob confirmed that the country's borders will be reopened soon.

This will enable Keluarga Malaysia (The Malaysian Family) members who have not met each other for some time to be together during Hari Raya Aidilfitri in May.

To enable travel to and from Malaysia with Brunei and Thailand, the government was in the process of implementing the land Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) with these two countries, he said when launching the first series of Jelajah Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia (AKM) at Dataran Angsana here on Saturday (March 5).

He said this would add to the existing VTL facility with Singapore and the one still under planning with Indonesia.

"To rejuvenate economic activities and tourism, especially in Johor, the federal government implemented the air and land VTL with Singapore on Jan 21 this year to facilitate the reunion of families separated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was told that 200,000 Malaysians commute between Singapore and Johor. They no longer have to undergo compulsory quarantine at home after taking two health screening tests, once when leaving Singapore and again on arrival in Malaysia,” he said.

The media today reported Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin as saying the Prime Minister was expected to announce next week the date for reopening the country's borders.

Khairy said the Cabinet reached an agreement on the reopening of borders at its meeting on Friday (March 4).

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri, who visited the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation booth in conjunction with Jelajah AKM, performed the flag-off for Malaysia Techlympics 2022.

This initiative is aimed at inculcating a culture of innovative ideas in line with Malaysia's agenda to be a high-technology country, as represented by the Ministry's tagline of "Merakyatkan Sains, Menginsankan Teknologi".

Themed Connect, Compete, Celebrate, Malaysia Techlympics 2022 runs from March until November, featuring 25 competitions under five major categories covering engineering, computing and micro-computers, nano, Internet of Things, robotics, drones, science, mathematics, creative designing and animation, as well as three dimensional printing and development.

The Ministry said in a statement today that at the end of Malaysia Techlympics, at least 2,000 ideas or world-class prototypes that are innovative, creative and futuristic will be gathered, in line with the agenda to drive the country towards a high-technology nation by 2030. - Bernama