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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on his Facebook post on Oct. 22 that he was "delighted to hear that Australia will be allowing entry to visa holders from Singapore".

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier announced at a press conference on Friday morning that both countries are in the final stages of concluding the details of this pilot travel arrangement.

New travel arrangement to be established "within the week"

The new travel arrangement between the countries could be established "within the next week or so", Morrison said.

"We are in the final stages of concluding an arrangement with the Singapore government", Morrison said.

Morrison shared that he met PM Lee in Singapore a few months ago, where Australia could set up a new arrangement "which will see our borders open more quickly to Singapore".

In PM Lee's FB post, he said that he had encouraged Morrison to do so when he visited Singapore in June.

Vaccinated students and business travellers as a first step

The Singapore arrangement will be similar to the travel bubble Australia established with the South Island of New Zealand this week, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The talks focused on allowing vaccinated students and business travellers to travel freely between Australia and Singapore as the first step, before opening up to tourists, SMH added.

Morrison added that Australia may welcome international visitors "before the end of the year" but that Australia would not rush its reopening, saying that the aim was to "open safely so we can remain safely open".

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Photo from Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). 

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