Credit by CNN

ASEAN-Australia Discuss Bubble Travel to Restore the Economy

ASEAN and Australia discussed the opportunity to open a travel corridor or a travel bubble that was being initiated by 10 Southeast Asian countries as an economic recovery effort that has plummeted due to the corona virus pandemic (Covid-19).

The discourse was discussed in a virtual meeting of ASEAN and Australia foreign ministers that specifically discussed the handling of Covid-19 in the region on Tuesday (30/6).

Travel bubble has indeed become one of the issues discussed by the 10 ASEAN leaders in the 36th Summit which was held virtually on Friday (6/26).

During the meeting, President Joko Widodo asked ASEAN to immediately open a limited travel corridor for fellow member countries. According to Jokowi, the travel corridor could be an effort to restore the economy which plummeted after the corona pandemic.

RI considers this travel corridor important for accelerating the economic recovery of countries in Southeast Asia, also can show the strategic significance of the ASEAN community both to the region and the international world.

In the ASEAN Summit, Jokowi asked all ASEAN leaders to immediately assign their ministers to start discussing this travel corridor scheme. Indonesia is indeed exploring opportunities to reopen the international travel and tourism sector with the concept of a travel bubble with a number of countries.

However, until now, the government has not stated which countries are being targeted to be invited to collaborate in opening this travel corridor. The policy of traveling abroad with the concept of travel bubbles is increasingly in demand by several countries to revive cross-country travel and boost the tourism sector which was paralyzed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Travel bubbles or travel corridors are cross-country travel arrangements that apply only between countries that agree. Usually, this travel bubble is agreed between countries that have succeeded in controlling the transmission of the corona virus in the country.

this trip makes it easy for residents to travel in and out of agreed countries. With this system, participating citizens are not required to carry out independent quarantine upon arrival in the destination country. Travel bubble is considered to make it easier for the government to control people who enter and exit their country and also makes it easier for citizens to travel abroad.

In the ASEAN-Australia Foreign Minister's meeting today, Retno said the two sides also agreed to increase cooperation in the public health sector. Australia, he said, suggested that economic recovery cooperation be adjusted to the priorities of each ASEAN country.

Source: https://bit.ly/3dTmwVd