Widodo, Indonesia's president, has called for an ASEAN transit corridor to help the country recover

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

President Joko Widodo of Indonesia has encouraged Southeast Asian countries to expedite efforts to build a regional transport corridor to help restore tourism and speed recovery from the pandemic's economic effects.

 

Widodo said Monday that the amount of restrictions in Southeast Asia was the greatest in the world, citing UN and World Trade Organization data.

With the number of coronavirus infections in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations dropping, he believes those restrictions should be relaxed to allow individuals to travel more freely.

 

Widodo, speaking at a regional business forum, called for the immediate implementation of a regional travel corridor, a concept proposed by Indonesia in 2020 that would include, among other things, faster immigration lanes, recognition of vaccine certificates, and standardised health measures for departure and arrival.

 

"After 20 months of dealing with the terrifying COVID-19 pandemic, there is suddenly a ray of hope."
COVID-19 cases in ASEAN declined by 14% in the last week, greatly above the global average of 1%.," he said at a seminar held ahead of a three-day ASEAN leaders conference that begins on Tuesday.

 

"As the COVID-19 situation improves, these limits may be reduced, and movement may be freed," he said, "while still ensuring that it is safe from the pandemic risk."

"The wheels of the economy will soon run again if all ASEAN countries immediately permit secure people transportation," he remarked.

 

Intra-ASEAN travel accounts for over 40% of all travel in the region and is critical to the region's tourism revival.

Thailand is one of the countries that is carefully reopening to foreign tourists.

 

After more than 80% of the population was fully vaccinated, Indonesia reopened its holiday resort island of Bali to foreign tourists this month.
The administration, according to Widodo, would gradually open up other areas of the country where the immunisation rate exceeds 70%.
About a fifth of Indonesia's population has been fully vaccinated so far.

 

Widodo asked for more equitable vaccination distribution to ensure that at least 70% of ASEAN's 600 million people are vaccinated.
Vaccination rates vary across the area, with Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia having vaccinated over 70% of their populations, and Myanmar having vaccinated less than 10% of its population.