KUCHING: The establishment of travel bubbles would benefit the country economically, said Plantation and Commodities Deputy Minister Datuk Willie Mongin, who pointed out that they have been mentioned by the federal and state tourism ministries.
Travel bubbles, also known as travel corridors and corona corridors, involve the formation of exclusive partnerships between two or more countries that have demonstrated considerable success in containing the Covid-19 pandemic within their respective borders.
“I personally think the initiative would be good for our country because economic activities must continue. If we do not do this for a long time, it would badly affect our economy.
“This is good for those who have been vaccinated or identified as safe and they are important to the economy. Thus, I think both the idea and suggestion of forming travel bubbles is very good,” he said.
Having said that, he insisted that the public health standard operating procedures (SOPs) must be strictly adhered to in order to make the initiative a success.
“It would be best if this initiative can be implemented as soon as possible because we do not want the Covid-19 pandemic to destroy our industries.
“As long as we and our partner countries comply with the SOPs, there should be few or no barriers to realise the initiative,” he said.
State Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah recently said that the Sarawak government will introduce a special passport for those who have been vaccinated.
That type of passport is aimed at facilitating the movements of vaccinated persons in and out of the country.