SINGAPORE: Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday (Dec 4) that the signing to formalize the special economic zone between Singapore and Johor has been postponed.
The SEZ deal was supposed to have been signed on Dec 9 as part of a yearly leadership meeting between the two countries, which Malaysia was scheduled to host.
It would have been Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s first time attending the leadership meeting.
However, Mr Ibrahim told the Senate in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday morning that PM Wong had told him the night before that he had contracted Covid and that the signing needed to be postponed to January.
“He does not want to pass the infection to me and my wife,” the Malaysian Prime Minister added.
PM Wong let the public know about his Covid infection through a Facebook post on early Tuesday evening, saying that he had woken up that day with a “bad sore throat” after a “recent stretch of overseas work trips.”
He had just returned from a trip to Thailand and, prior to that, had been in Peru for the APEC summit and Brazil for the G20 summit. What PM Wong initially thought was just the flu turned out to be Covid, which he found out after testing positive.
He wrote that it is the first time he’s gotten Covid since the pandemic broke out, but added that he is “feeling fine overall and will self-isolate while working from home.”
The Prime Minister also took the opportunity to remind Singaporeans to keep updated on their flu shots and vaccinations and to take precautions such as masking if they feel unwell, especially given that many travel during the holidays.
At the 10th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat, which was held in Singapore on Oct 30, 2023, a progress report was given on the joint special economic zone between Singapore and the state of Johor (JS-SEZ) by the special task force established to study it.
“The JS-SEZ will tap into the complementary strengths of both countries to foster economic connectivity by improving cross-border flows of goods, investments, and people,” said both leaders in a statement issued after the retreat was held.
Then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the SEZ a “substantial and promising project.”
The Memorandum of Understanding for the JS-SEZ was signed by Malaysia’s Minister of Economy Mohd Rafizi Ramli, and Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, on Jan 11, 2024. This was witnessed by Messrs Lee and Ibrahim.
Featured image from Facebook pages of Mr Ibrahim and Mr Wong. /TISG
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