KUCHING, June 20 — Sarawak is looking into facilitating transportation services to transport those from Pontianak, Indonesia who are seeking medical treatment in Kuching, said Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
“We will discuss this with the state Transport Ministry to resolve this. As we know, a lot of those seeking medical treatment are from Pontianak, and there are those from Jakarta arrive at Pontianak and proceed to go to Kuching via land from there.
“We admit (that) we are facing some problems when the borders were still closed and the transportations cannot go back and forth from Kuching to Pontianak.
“As such, I believe that this matter can be resolved soon, and I will bring this forward to the top,” he said at a press conference at Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) here last night.
He said this when asked on whether the state would be able to facilitate the transportation services to transport those from Pontianak who are seeking medical services in Kuching as currently, there is no public transportation such as buses available from Pontianak to Kuching.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim said before the Covid-19 pandemic, the state’s medical tourism was picking up, with most of the people who came in were from Indonesia.
He revealed that in 2019, the number of those seeking medical treatment in the state was about 47,000, deeming the figure as a good number.
“To us, it is a good number, because anyone who comes in — normally there will be a number of family members that come in together with them, and normally there will be an extended stay as they wouldn’t be staying just for one to two days.
“That is good for the economy especially for the (tourism) industry,” he added. — Borneo Post Online
