KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Singapore today agreed to the setting up of a Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Changi International Airport beginning Nov 29.
A joint statement released by the Prime Minister's Office of both Malaysia and Singapore said the lane would allow fully-vaccinated individuals to travel between both countries and be subjected to Covid-19 tests in lieu of quarantine or Stay-Home notices.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong also looked forward to restoring travel across land links between both countries, the statement said.
"They were happy to note the good progress in ongoing detailed discussions on a similar vaccinated travel scheme, to reopen travel across the Causeway and the Second Link, taking into account the public health situations in Johor and Singapore," it said.
The statement said both leaders came to the decision to roll out the VTL given the significant progress that both countries had made in vaccinating their respective populations and managing the pandemic
"(Therefore) the prime ministers agreed that it is timely to progressively resume cross-border travel between both countries, in a safe manner."
Ismail Sabri said the VTLs were another important milestone in the longstanding Malaysia-Singapore cooperation.
"The VTLs will allow travel as our two countries gradually reopen our borders responsibly by balancing the need to recover our economies while ensuring safety and health of our peoples from Covid-19.
"I look forward to effective implementation of this travel scheme, adding to those we already have developed previously to facilitate movements of people and goods between Malaysia and Singapore" he was quoted as saying in the same statement.
Lee said the VTLs would help revive the two nations' economies, restore people-to-people ties, and strengthen bilateral relationship.
"Singapore and Malaysia enjoy deep, warm and multi-faceted relations. I am very happy that both our countries are finally able to restart cross-border travel through the VTLs," said Lee.
Earlier, the two leaders spoke on the phone, where both of them recognised how the pandemic had disrupted people-to-people connections between the two countries as well as separating families for many months.