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Singapore and China establish “fast lane”
June 12th 2020
Singapore and China have established a "fast lane" arrangement for short-term essential business or official travel between Singapore and six destinations in China. Read More »
The first phase of the scheme, which commenced on June 8 and covered Chongqing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Tianjin and Zhejiang, requires travellers to be sponsored by a government agency to receive a letter of invitation for fast lane processing.
Travellers also are required to obtain a negative COVID-19 test result certificate before travel and be tested again at their destinations. The regulations call for a "controlled itinerary" during the first 14 days of their travel in either country.
People travelling from China would need to use the Singapore government's TraceTogether app, which helps contact tracing should an individual test positive to COVID-19, have their temperature taken twice daily and report their health status to the host company or government agency.
Returning Singaporeans from China are issued with a 14-day stay-at-home notice, while travellers returning to China from Singapore must adhere to the Chinese government's COVID-19 prevention and control measures.
"This may include a 14-day quarantine or COVID-19 tests at the returnee’s cost as required by most provinces/municipalities for international arrivals into China," said a Singapore government information sheet that outlined the fast lane arrangements.
While the scheme is open only to travel sponsored by government agencies for now, applications for company-sponsored travellers will open at a later date, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a joint statement this week.
The scheme will be gradually expanded to other Chinese provinces and municipalities.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) operates a once a week service between Singapore and Shanghai and its regional wing, SilkAir, flies nonstop from Singapore to Chongqing. SIA's LCC, Scoot, has a once weekly service to Guangzhou.
Chinese carriers flying to Singapore include Air China (from Chengdu) China Eastern Airlines (from Shanghai), and China Southern Airlines (from Guangzhou).
The fast lane scheme began operating in the same week SIA group carriers commenced accepting transit passengers travelling outbound from Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Christchurch, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney to any destination in the airline group's network via Changi Airport.
Transit passengers are being accommodated in a designated precinct at Changi airport and seated separately from non-transit passengers on flights.
Separately, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week welcomed Malaysia's proposal to resume cross-border travel between the two countries.
"We are prepared to work with Malaysia to address the needs of cross-border travellers, including short-term business and official travellers and Malaysian workers who were previously commuting between Singapore and Malaysia," the statement said.
"Such proposed arrangements would have to include mutually agreed public health protocols to allow the safe resumption of cross-border movement."
The MFA said both countries would "require some time to work out the details", with any opening of the border also dependent on the COVID-19 situation.
"In the meantime, Singapore will continue practical measures to facilitate Malaysians to continue working in Singapore," the MFA said.
