He said the health ministry would be studying several proposals on Malaysia’s VTL with neighbouring countries.
“The air VTL is easier to implement compared to the land VTL as travellers arriving at airports can be quickly screened (for Covid-19).
“However, we need to avoid creating long queues of vehicles when conducting screenings at land entry points.
“We have given several proposals to the health ministry to find the best way to facilitate and expedite the implementation of the land VTL.
“I would like to stress that this matter can be settled before Hari Raya (this year),” he told a press conference for Malaysian journalists here today.
He said the land VTL, particularly between Thailand and Malaysia, was important because it not only involved tourism but also bilateral trade, especially border trade which accounted for half of the Malaysia-Thailand trade totalling US$10.5 bilion (RM44.1 billion).
He said Malaysia’s land VTLs with Singapore and Brunei were important for the cross-border movement of people between these two countries.
“Almost 200,000 Malaysian workers commute between Malaysia and Singapore.
“Whereas, at the Malaysia-Brunei border, those in Limbang and Lawas need to go through Brunei. They are still unable to cross the border yet,” he added.
Yesterday, Ismail and his Thai counterpart Prayuth Chan o-cha held a meeting in conjunction with his maiden official visit to Thailand as prime minister.
Malaysia and Thailand have agreed in principle to implement the air, land and sea VTL to facilitate the movement of people between the two countries.
After the meeting, Ismail said the relevant ministries and agencies would hold discussions to work out the standard operating procedures for the reopening of borders soon, the VTL for Malaysia and Test & Go for Thailand.
Meanwhile, Ismail said Malaysia and Thailand had agreed to recognise their respective Covid-19 vaccination certificates — MySejahtera (Malaysia) and Mor Prom (Thailand) — to support their efforts to reopen their borders.
“We will follow up with the digital vaccination certificate recognition and integration of the MySejahtera and Mor Prom applications to facilitate cross-border travel between the two countries,” he said.