Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri who is one working visit to Brunei has said that Malaysia and Brunei have agreed in principle to implement the air and land Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) initiative for cross-border movement between the two countries.
He said the agreement was achieved as a result of discussions with the Sultan of Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah which also included a proposal of four flights a week between Brunei and Malaysia when the VTL is carried out.
Currently, there are only two flights a week between Kuala Lumpur and Bandar Seri Begawan, namely on Wednesday and Friday, because Brunei has yet to open its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ismail Sabri said the relevant ministries would review the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the purpose of implementing the VTL initiative. Malaysia had previously implemented the VTL with Singapore and has also agreed to the implementation of the initiative with Indonesia.
with regards to the matter of Brunei recognising Malaysia’s vaccine certificate, the Prime Minister said the Sultan has agreed to recognise the use of MySejahtera and BruHealth in both countries to facilitate system integration and use by the people of Malaysia and Brunei.
This cooperation, he said, was also crucial to smoothen the cross-border travel of people from both countries.
Recently there were issues related the vaccine certification, when the Philipines immigration department refused entry to Malaysians in Manila due to MySejahtera not being recognised by the Government there, however after a series of negotiations between Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry the matter was resolved.
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