JOHOR BARU, Oct 11 — The Johor government will be tabling a special plan for the prompt reopening of the Malaysia-Singapore border involving the Johor Causeway and Linekdua to the federal government soon.
Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said the plan would be tabled to the Economic Action Council on October 19.
“The plan will not only touch on the needs to reopen the border, it will also be looked at those working in the republic and the effects of investment in Johor as well as those intending to enter (to invest) in Johor.
“We need to explain why the measure (border reopening) was necessary as we cannot continue to be in this situation as many of our people are affected similarly the business sector as well,” he told reporters after closing the 2020 Asia International Innovation Exhibition here today.
Elaborating further, Hasni said Johor has various reasons to consider the demand and its special position as revenue from the two gateways which contributes up to 50 per cent of the Customs’ tax collection to the country.
“When we could not open the border, I am confident and believe it would affect our country’s Customs revenue collection.
“Besides, we could feel the direct effect when many residents living in Johor Baru could not travel to and from work and other matters to Singapore,” he said.
Earlier, in his speech, Johor Mentri Besar said he was worried that many businesses were badly affected when the check points are still not fully opened in the effort to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The topic of opening the border between Malaysia and Singapore was an ongoing issue being discussed between the two countries lately as there was a need to fully reopen after so many employment and business sectors were affected.
On October 4, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed admitted that discussion on reopening the border was an agenda of the federal government even though the country is now facing increasing cases of Covid-19.
According to Mustapa, the government understands that Covid-19 poses tremendous risks, nonetheless there was a need to address economic and health issues to rehabilitate the economy. — Bernama
