Former Malaysian health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has said that there should be two or three more land crossings between Singapore and Malaysia, saying more should be done to facilitate border crossings.

Inconceivable!

Khairi was speaking at the SIDC Business Foresight Forum 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, where he was the main speaker at a session business opportunities for Malaysia.

Free Malaysia Today quoted Khairi as saying that it was "inconceivable that since 1965, when Singapore was expelled from Malaysia", there were only two physical land crossings.

Instead, there "should be four or five".

He was, of course, referring to the century-old Causeway, as well as the relatively new Tuas Second Link, that was opened in 1998.

However in 2025,  a third link will open, the Johor Bahru- Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link, and is currently about 83 per cent done, according to Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke.

Khairy did not indicate if he considered this a separate connection from the Causeway.

The Causeway is one of, if not the most, heavily used border checkpoints in the world, and in March 2024, recording over 510,000 travellers crossing in a single day, its highest ever.

Passport free

Khairy said that he believed there were many "low-hanging fruits" available for both countries.

He said that the two neighbours should enact a "passport-free soft border" policy, in order to allow for seamless customs clearance.

But for "political reasons", the opportunities presented by having less border checks had yet to be seized, he claimed.

However, that is what businesses from both Malaysia and Singapore want to see, which led to the interest in the Johor-Singapore special economic zone.

The Johor-Singapore SEZ is often referred to as a "game changer" by Malaysian politicians, and aims to facilitate cross border business ventures, with a "passport-free" QR code customs system being mooted.

Since the SEZ was first introduced in October 2023, a QR code system for customs has been gradually rolled out both in Singapore and Malaysia.

Core members

Khairy was speaking about cross border connectivity as part of a broader initiative that would most closely connect not just Singapore and Malaysia, but other regional players such as Indonesia and Thailand.

He proposed that Asean should implement a way for "a core number" of member countries to make major decisions together, without needing the newer members, such as Myanmar and Cambodia, to agree.

He suggested that the Asean Business Advisory Council focus on "building a regional supply chain to integrate regional players into a single network."

This would allow issues regarding connectivity in the digital, infrastructure, and energy sectors to be "sorted out" more quickly.

However, requiring Asean wide consensus on such decisions might cause delays due to bureaucracy.

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Top image via Khairy Jamaluddin/Facebook & Canva