KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Malaysia and Singapore should have four or five land crossings instead of the two that it currently has and a passport-free border policy for seamless customs clearance, former minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

Calling them “low-hanging fruit”, Khairy said with the planned Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone in the pipeline, the opportunity should be seized right now, online news outlet Free Malaysia Today reported today.

“These are low-hanging fruits. It (the opportunity) wasn’t taken in the past for political reasons but it should be seized now. These are the things that businesses from both countries want to see. This is what the Johor-Singapore special economic zone is about,” he was reported as saying.

Saying the connectivity between both countries was integral for the economic integrity of Asean, he said the Johor-Singapore Causeway and the Second Link were inadequate to handle the volume of daily commuters.

“I think it’s inconceivable that since 1965, when Singapore was expelled from Malaysia, there have been only two physical crossings between the two countries,” he was quoted as saying at the SIDC Business Foresight Forum 2024 at the Securities Commission’s headquarters today.

The Causeway and Second Link saw more than 450,000 daily crossings between Malaysia and Singapore prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The former Umno Youth chief also called for seamless customs clearance at the southern border, requiring less regulation and involving minimal customs and immigrations so people, goods and services can move more freely.

Khairy also urged the Asean Business Advisory Council to focus on creating a unified regional supply chain.

He stressed the importance of improving digital, infrastructure, and energy connectivity to facilitate seamless movement of people and capital.

To expedite this process, he suggested that key Asean members like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia should be allowed to make decisions on connectivity without requiring unanimous agreement from all members.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/08/22/calling-them-low-hanging-fruit-khairy-says-malaysia-singapore-should-have-five-land-crossings-passport-free-soft-border-policy/147843