Allow business travel from low-risk countries, says Najib

 

Najib Razak said some foreign countries have only single-digit numbers of new Covid-19 cases.

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has urged the government to allow the entry of business travellers from countries with low domestic Covid-19 transmissions.

He suggested that quarantine exemptions be granted to visitors or businessmen from countries such as Singapore, China, Taiwan, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Thailand, which had a low rate of domestic transmissions.

Malaysia currently imposes a 14-day mandatory quarantine period on travellers arriving in the country.

“If foreign businessmen were not allowed to visit Malaysia, they will not invest or do business with us.

“And if there is no foreign investment and there are no new international trade opportunities, then this will give a negative impact to the economic development and the number of new jobs in Malaysia in the years to come,” he said.

He added that Singapore has already taken the initiative to provide quarantine exemptions for visitors from countries such as Taiwan, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, China and Vietnam.

“The visitors from Singapore only need to install a contract tracing app such as MySejahtera and carry out a Covid-19 test before their departure,” he said.

Najib added that certain countries have also started vaccinating some of their citizens.

“Our country has already loosened all inter-state travel restrictions all while a few states are still recording hundreds of daily cases.

“So why are we still restricting businessmen or visitors (including those who are already vaccinated) from countries that have not recorded any domestic transmissions?” - FMT