KUCHING: Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, welcomes the reopening of the country’s borders on April 1.
He said it is a good move as the country can no longer economically afford to keep her borders closed.
“Australia had opened their borders on Feb 12 followed by the Philippines as well as neighboring countries Indonesia and Singapore.
“We need to accept the fact that COVID-19 is here to stay, but with good precautionary measures our fight against its surge will soon be over,” he said when commenting on the reopening of the country’s borders which was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Tuesday.
Abdul Karim, who is also Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Minister pointed out that the state government was one of the few which had already worked out its Post COVID-19 Development Strategy (PCDS).
He pointed out that the PCDS launched by Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tung Openg was a continuous effort to keep the state’s development agenda on track.
“The reopening of borders is good, we need this because the livelihood of our people is at stake. We must work hard together to keep everyone’s lives to return to normalcy,” he added.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that Malaysia would fully reopen its border on Apr 1 as the country begins to transition to the COVID-19 endemic phase.
With this development, international travelers entering Malaysia would only need to have valid travel documents to enter and exit the country while Malaysians can travel freely to other countries with similar open borders.
