According to Malaysian ambassador to Thailand, Datuk Jojie Samuel, PM Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s visit to Thailand this week is expected to bring ‘good news’ to reopening the Malaysia-Thailand borders. He said that the Malaysian PM’s 3-day visit to Thailand was an invitation from the Thai PM Prayuth Chan o-cha.
PM Ismail Sabri will be visiting Bangkok from 24 February till 26 February to discuss matters in regards to reopening the land borders, bilateral cooperation, and exploring trade and investment opportunities post-Covid. “There will be some good news (on the reopening of land borders). There are few proposals on the table. Senior officials and a technical committee will discuss the details on the reopening,” Jojie Samuel said.
Earlier, Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry’s deputy spokesman Natapanu Nopakun said that Thailand planned to reopen the Thailand-Malaysia border in March, in order to boost tourist arrivals. On top of that, Thailand’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) and Tourism Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) was ordered to prepare and outline the pandemic mitigation measures fore reopening southern border provinces in the checkpoints of Songkhla, Narathiwat, Yala, and Satun.
According to Natapanu, Malaysian travellers will enter Thailand via a quarantine-free ‘Test & Go’ programme, passing 2 RT-PCR Covid-19 tests upon arrival and on day 5.