THE strong leadership of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was the reason for Malaysia’s success in reopening its international borders today, allowing the country to take a step towards economic recovery, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today. 

He said Ismail had laid out a clear “exit plan” and wanted ministers to make preparations for this day, which the prime minister believed would be significant for the country and its recovery process. 

“Of course this is the effort of the government under the leadership of the prime minister, who had laid down a clear exit plan. 

“In this regard, the prime minister had asked me and other ministers in the quartet committee to make preparations for today.

“We had been making preparations for several months for this day because we want to see this as a catalyst for the recovery of the country’s economy,” Khairy told reporters after visiting klia2 on the first day of the reopening of the country’s borders.

Malaysia closed its borders a little over two years ago on March 18, 2020, to curb the spread of the infectious Covid-19 virus.

Today, as part of efforts to move to the endemic stage of Covid-19, Malaysia reopened its borders.

Khairy said that his ministry had held several engagement sessions with relevant ministries and agencies to ensure the safe opening of the country’s borders.

He said the ministry has deployed a total 346 health personnel at 75 international gateways (air, sea and land) across the country to speed up and ease the entry process.

Khairy also said that the airlines are required to ensure that travellers fill out MySejahtera and obtain a traveller’s card before leaving for Malaysia.

He said his ministry will continue to improve communication with airlines for this purpose.

Based on flight schedules today, Khairy said airports nationwide are expected to receive 119 flights on the first day of the country’s border reopening.

He said the two terminals, KLIA and klia2, will receive 110 flights from various international cities such as Hong Kong, Incheon, Melbourne, New Delhi, Doha, Istanbul and London, among others.

Penang International Airport is receiving seven flights – five from Singapore and two from Taipei, while Langkawi International Airport and Ipoh Airport are receiving one flight each from Singapore. – April 1, 2022.