MPN proposes reopening of borders by January 2022 at latest

PUTRAJAYA: The National Recovery Council (MPN) yesterday proposed for the country’s borders to be reopened to foreign visitors on Jan 1 next year at the latest in a bid to expedite the economic recovery of the country, especially the tourism sector.

MPN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Special Committee on Pandemic Management chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob would identify the countries, especially those with high rates of complete vaccination against Covid-19, to be allowed entry to Malaysia.

“They (committee) will choose the countries that have managed to control the transmission of Covid-19 and have high vaccination rates...only visitors from those countries will be allowed to enter our country,” he said after chairing the fifth meeting of MPN here yesterday.

He said the decision to open the borders was also prompted by the excellent performance of the national immunisation programme, which saw 95 per cent of the adult population and almost 67.7 per cent of the adolescent population had been fully vaccinated so far.

Muhyiddin said the country’s tourism sector had seen a relatively slow recovery due to the lack of international tourist arrivals and the fact that most of the industry players needed time and resources to resume their businesses.

“Our tourism sector will suffer losses of almost RM90 million if the borders were to remain closed. That is how much revenue the country can generate from the tourism industry as a result of foreign visitors coming in,” he said.

He said other countries like Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, despite still struggling with Covid-19, had already allowed entry to travellers from Malaysia as most of their people were fully vaccinated.

“So, if we compare ourselves with those countries, our vaccination rate is among the highest in the world, and we should also benefit from that by allowing foreign tourists to come to our country.

“At the same time, we also have to be vigilant and continue to comply with the standard operating procedures,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said Malaysia’s decision to forge cooperation with Indonesia in the form of a travel corridor as announced by Ismail Sabri yesterday, was indeed a good and forward-looking decision.

He said the leaders of the two countries must have taken into consideration all the current developments, including efforts to control the transmission of Covid-19 in both countries.

Yesterday’s MPN meeting kicked off with the briefing from Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on the latest development of Covid-19 indicators.

“Overall, I am satisfied with the development, especially in terms of the declining trend of daily positive cases, deaths, admission of Category 3 to 5 to hospitals and the vaccination rate,” Muhyiddin said.

The Council was also briefed by Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin on the performance of economic sectors and sub-sectors and the indicators showing that the performance of all economic sectors except the manufacturing sector in the second quarter of this year was still below the pre-pandemic level.

“We were also informed that the prospect of the country’s economy for the third and fourth quarter of this year will still be quite challenging,” he added. — Bernama