by TMR/ pic by RAZAK GHAZALI

THE government’s agreement in allowing the Green Lane Reciprocal Travel Bubble with Indonesia is a good news, says the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC).

MOTAC minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said this initiative is one of the ministry’s tourism and cultural recovery plans formulated since July last year as a measure to revitalise or “rebound” the country’s tourism and culture industry.

“I would like to thank and congratulate the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin for his success in obtaining an agreement with the Republic of Indonesia in allowing the RGL,” she said in a statement yesterday.

“Alhamdulillah, this is a good news awaited by the ministry,” she added.

Nancy further said that MOTAC has previously held discussions with the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (KLN) in exploring the opportunity to create travel bubbles with neighboring countries such as Brunei, Singapore and Thailand or ASEAN countries and Asia Pacific such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand have been identified as safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“Its implementation, however, is subject to bilateral discussions and considerations on aspects of health, immigration, data tracking, and ongoing monitoring by relevant agencies in both countries,” said Nancy.

Internationally, as Chairman of the Commission for the East Asia & Pacific Region in the UNWTO Global Tourism Crisis Committee, Malaysia also voiced proposals for transparency and standardisation of cross-border SOPs by safe countries to facilitate travel, taking into account views from the health agencies of their respective countries.

Last week, it was reported that the Singapore government has suspended the RGL with Malaysia, Singapore and Germany for three months.