Get your passports ready because plans for an Australia and Singapore travel bubble are officially underway.
On Thursday, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore.
During their discussions, the pair acknowledged the importance of resuming cross-border travel and reaffirmed their commitment to developing a travel bubble between the two nations.
Unfortunately, eager travellers will still have to wait a few months. The green light for the Australia and Singapore travel bubble will only come when the majority of people in both countries are vaccinated.
“There is still some time before we reach that milestone,” Mr Morrison said.
“But there is nothing impeding us from getting on with the job of putting systems in place that will enable such a bubble to emerge.”
Mr Lee agreed, saying the travel bubble would be opened in a “safe and calibrated manner” and only “when both sides are ready.”
“We need to prepare the infrastructure and the processes to get ready to do this, and this starts with mutual recognition of vaccination certificates, possibly in a digital form – very likely – and when all the preparations are ready we can start small with an air travel bubble to build confidence on both sides.”
So far Singapore is ahead of Australia when it comes to the vaccine rollout. Almost half of Singapore’s adult population have received both doses of the vaccination. Whereas Australia still has a fair way to go to reach that point.
Who can travel first?
Once the bubble is established, priority will be given to students from Singapore wanting to return to Australia to complete their studies.
While it may be still months away, it’s a positive sign to see ongoing discussions of international travel. Find out which travel bubbles might come next.
