Singapore and Australia are in discussions leading to the creation of a “travel bubble” to allow their citizens to move between the two nations without having to quarantine.
The talks are reported to include discussions on the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and establishing priorities for student and business travelers, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
A report on Singapore television’s Channel News Asia website quoted the ministry as stating, “Australia is a key partner of Singapore in the region. We are in discussions on how to cooperate in opening our economies safely, taking into consideration the Covid-19 situation in both countries.”
Australia’s Trade Minister Dan Tehan confirmed the talks in a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the two governments hope to have the bubble in place by July.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore hailed the talks as “great news for business and for Singaporeans and Australians alike.”
Chamber President Chris Coburn told CNA the benefits to both economies are “clear” based on the volume of trade between them, the number of Australian regional company headquarters and international companies with interests in Australia that are based in Singapore as well as Singapore’s significant investments in Australia.
Singapore has already opened its borders in limited fashion to a handful of countries that have controlled the virus, including Australia, and officials in the city-state have said they would like to establish more.
“If only others start to do it, then we’ll have a bubble, you have reciprocity, you can start to travel. And I hope sometime this year we can do that,” Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said.
Restoring normal travel is a big issue for tourism-dependent Singapore, which is home to two large-scale resort casinos, Marina Bay Sands, owned by Las Vegas Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, owned by Genting Singapore, that also rely heavily on customers from overseas.
The city-state saw visitor arrivals plummet in 2020 by 85.7 percent year on year, and most of the 2.7 million who did come arrived in the first two months before the pandemic hit.
As of March 14, Singapore had 107 active recorded cases of Covid-19, according to the Ministry of Health. The ministry said more than 392,000 first doses of a vaccine had been administered locally and more than 218,000 second doses.
The government estimates that at current levels, vaccination of the entire population will be achieved by the third quarter.
