JOHOR BARU: The number of immigration counters at the custom, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) complex at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) will soon be increase from 25 to 40.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said this would expedite the process of arrival and departure of Malaysians and foreigners using the Causeway thus easing the congestion problem.
"In today's visit, I checked on several projects that have been approved by the Special Committee on the Causeway Congestion that were delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"This includes the construction of the covered walkway at the Causeway, which will be expedited. We have also agreed to increase the number of immigration counters from 25 to 40 so that when the border fully opens, the facilities will be ready.
"This is important because when the border opens, some 400,000 Malaysians will be using the Causeway to commute to Singapore for work," said Hamzah, adding the work to have more counters would be carried out in stages soon.
In the 2020 Federal Budget, the government had approved an allocation of RM85 million to implement 23 initiatives recommended by the committee that will be carried out in three phases.
The recommendations include improvements on the Malaysian Automated Clearance System (MACS) and M-BIKE, which were expected to be completed this year.
Hamzah also said all checkpoints in Malaysia would be equipped with a highly advanced immigration system that would include facial recognition and biometric systems by 2023.
He said this was important in order to monitor the movement of foreigners entering and exiting the country.
"The system will also be able to identify those who have been blacklisted from entering the country and those who overstay."
He said the new system called the National Integrated Immigration System (NISSE) was being developed to replace the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs) which had weaknesses, including its inability to track the movement of foreigners in and out of the country.
"NIISE is an initiative under the Digital Malaysia programme with the aim of transforming the immigration system to a fully automatic one. The mainframe to integrate the system is being developed and its overall cost is still being evaluated," said Hamzah.
He said with NIISE's capabilities to enhance the efficiency of the Immigration Department in monitoring the movement of foreigners in and out of the country, it would reduce security risk to the country.