In an interview on 19 May, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore is a “long way off” from opening her borders to international traveller like before.
However, he explained that Singapore cannot afford to close its borders off to the world as well.
He added that this is because Singapore is a “small open country” that depends and relies on food and fuel from other countries.
He also added that Singapore could only close borders “to the extent that it can”, while taking precautions.
PM Lee also said that Singapore has various ways of enabling safe travel with other countries, acknowledging that while there were limits on the number of people allowed to travel, at least it keeps the channels open.
He said that this is not without risk but unavoidable.
He also touched on Travel Bubbles, and said that it was not easy to “make a match” to establish one with another country, as they would only want to create a travel bubble with other countries that were safer.
He also said that mutual understanding of each other’s situations was needed, as well as mutual confidence that we will be open with each other and keep things under control.
PM Lee also said that Singapore’s Travel Bubble agreement with Hong Kong “may be a while before it comes into effect.”
He then provided an overview of Singapore’s situation, saying that Singapore is far from out of the woods in its management of the Covid-19 situation.
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Image and video source: Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore YouTube