Authorities in Malaysia are set to end border closure that has been in place since the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic last year.

Muhyiddin Yassin, the head of the government’s economic recovery council, said the lockdown will be lifted on January 1, 2022.

Mr Yassin, who is also the former prime minister, told local media that tourism, which in busy years before the pandemic, made up around 10 per cent of Malaysian gross domestic product.

“Tourism has seen a slow recovery due to the absence of international tourists,’’ Yassin said.

The South-East Asian nation shut its frontiers to almost all arrivals in March last year, shortly after the World Health Organisation declared the spread of coronavirus to be a pandemic.

Less than a month after Mr Yassin became premier, he lost his job in August over his handling of the pandemic.

Successor premier, Ismail Sabri Yaakob earlier announced that bilateral “travel lanes” to facilitate border re-openings with neighbours Indonesia and Singapore would soon open for those vaccinated against the virus.

Tourism minister, Nancy Shukri, said vaccinated foreigners can visit Langkawi, a set of popular holiday islands in the Strait of Malacca, from next week.

The minister said that would be a test run for a wider re-opening.

Tourism businesses had earlier sought state financial support due to the border closure and the impact of lockdowns.

It also saw travel between Malaysia’s regions banned for long stretches. 

(dpa/NAN)