Jokowi makes push to reopen Asean-wide travel

Jakarta

INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo pushed for travel to reopen in South-east Asia, saying this would help economic recovery in the region that has seen coronavirus cases recede.

He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations needs to hit its vaccination target of 70 per cent of the population of over 650 million people as soon as possible so that economies could reopen safely.

Jokowi, as the president is commonly known as, has been pushing for a regional travel corridor arrangement since late last year.

Instead, each country has set up bilateral deals with nations around the world, with Singapore reopening to North America and many parts of Europe, while Thailand has scrapped quarantine rules for a list of 46 countries that does not include Indonesia.

South-east Asia has one of the highest levels of restrictions in the world and it is crucial for the region to have a vaccinated travel corridor, Jokowi told the Asean Business Summit in Brunei via video link.

Meanwhile, ahead of the year-end holidays, Indonesia is bracing for a potential upsurge in Covid-19 infections with almost 20 million people estimated to travel in Java and Bali.

Testing will be made mandatory on all modes of transport as tourist sites reopen, Luhut Panjaitan, coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs who is overseeing the pandemic response, said in his weekly briefing on Monday (Oct 25).

Currently, negative polymerase chain reaction test results are required for passengers travelling by air. Restaurants and bars should also adhere to health protocols to help minimise the spread of the virus, he said.

This follows reports that some establishments have allowed large crowds in without logging on to the government's tracing app, while prohibiting photos or videos to avoid public scrutiny, said Luhut.

"We must not let our guard down today because of the low cases," especially since Indonesia's vaccine coverage is still low compared to its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia, he said.

Indonesia is on alert as its previous Covid-19 spikes have been preceded by long holidays. It saw its worst wave of infections in the mid-year after millions of people travelled and gathered with families to celebrate Eid al-Fitr in May, helping accelerate the spread of the more infectious delta variant across South-east Asia's most populous nation.

Covid-19 infections have since gone down sharply after the government expanded testing and reimposed stringent lockdown measures across the country.

Indonesia reported just 460 new Covid-19 infections on Monday, the lowest since May 26 last year. Daily fatalities have also dropped to their lowest in more than a year.

"We can withstand the new wave by staying in control of the number of cases and keeping it below 2,700 per day," Luhut said.

Indonesia will likewise focus on vaccinating the elderly, which make up most of those who get severely sick or die from the virus.

It expects to give a first dose to 168 million people before the year-end, while 123 million people should be fully vaccinated.

Only a quarter of Indonesia's 270 million population are fully inoculated against the disease, compared with 73 per cent for Malaysia and 84 per cent for Singapore, according to latest available data. BLOOMBERG