Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, called for a South-East Asian travel corridor to revive the economy as COVID-19 cases subside in the region.
Joko disclosed this to a business forum ahead of the summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations ASEAN scheduled for October 26 to 28.
He said countries in the region had imposed some of the world’s toughest restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.
He said the so-called ASEAN Travel Corridor Arrangement proposed by Indonesia in 2020 should be implemented as soon as possible.
On October 14, Indonesia reopened its tourist islands of Bali and Riau Archipelago to visitors from 19 countries.
However, fellow ASEAN countries including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were not among them.
Indonesia has gradually eased COVID-19 restrictions after a surge in cases overwhelmed hospitals in June and July, but in recent weeks daily cases have sunk to below 1,000.
The world’s fourth most populous country has recorded more than 4.2 million coronavirus cases with more than 143,000 deaths.
