A land border crossing between Malaysia and Singapore is expected to open for vaccinated travellers within a matter of weeks, according to the Singapore Multi-Ministry Taskforce on COVID-19.
Taskforce co-chair Gan Kim Yong confirmed the plan during a virtual press conference on Monday, as per local media reports, stating, “Our discussions with Malaysia on a VTL-like arrangement for our land links has progressed well. We are working to launch this soon … hopefully in a few weeks’ time.
“Many families have been separated from one another for a long time because of border restrictions. We hope this land link arrangement will allow many of them to be reunited, and they will be one of our priorities.”
The prospect of a Vaccinated Travel Lane on land follows last week’s news that air borders would reopen from 29 November when flights between Singapore’s Changi Airport and Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport would resume.
It also comes as a welcome boost for Singapore’s integrated resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, with analysts estimating that around 25% of Singapore’s VIP volume and mass market GGR come from Malaysia. Most of those mass market players enter by land and most VIP via Seletar Airport.
However, The Star reports that the Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore, Datuk Azfar Mohamad Mustafar, does not expect traveller volumes to immediately return to pre-COVID when anywhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people would cross the border daily.
“For a start, we would need to have a controlled opening. That means limiting the number of daily commuters,” he said.
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