Ifah SakinahSingapore and Australia are working towards putting in place a travel bubble between the two countries. With that in mind, a particular group of individuals will test the pilot scheme.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, expressed their aspiration for students from Singapore to return for their studies.
Also read: South Korea Planning Travel Bubble with Singapore and Taiwan This July
Students as first priority
Image credit: Pang Yuhao
In a bid to “resume two-way travel in a safe and calibrated manner when both sides are ready,” students in Singapore could be given priority to test the pilot scheme. That way, they can continue to pursue their education, which has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia’s border closures for non-nationals and non-residents have restricted students from Singapore from returning back to the Land Down Under.
Additionally, it could present as an ideal opportunity to try out the systems. This is prior to broadening such travel arrangements in full scale.
Also read: International Tourists Can Visit Phuket Without the Need to Quarantine Come 1 July 2021
Start small with an air travel bubble
Image credit: Road Trip with Raj
“We need to prepare the infrastructure and processes to get ready to do this. It starts with mutual recognition of health and vaccination certificates, possibly in a digital form. When all the preparations are ready, we can start small with an air travel bubble to build confidence on both sides,” Prime Minister Lee said.
Prime Minister Morrison added that it may take time before Singapore and Australia can open up the air travel bubble. However, the two countries are joining forces to implement systems in order for it to come to fruition — similar to the one between Australia and New Zealand.
Australia and New Zealand have successfully rolled out quarantine-free travel between the countries. However, it has paused a couple of times amid new outbreaks.
“Singapore is the first country outside of New Zealand that Australia would wish to engage in a travel bubble with,” said Morrison. “And we want to get it right in Singapore, which we know we can do because of the very sophisticated systems that Singapore has.”
Also read: Indonesia on Track to Open Travel Bubbles to Bali, Bintan, and Batam in July
Factors for the Singapore-Australia travel bubble
Image credit: Dan Freeman
“Officials from both sides are now at work discussing the air travel bubble and this includes talk about mutually recognising health and vaccination certificates, as well as preparing the pre-conditions and infrastructure for such an arrangement,” Lee said.
On top of that, vaccination rates and COVID-19 transmission rates will be taken into account when establishing the travel bubble between Singapore and Australia.
With plans underway, we can remain hopeful that there is a possibility of a full travel bubble between Singapore and Australia.
