By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Oct 4: Russia has called for faster reciprocal visa-free arrangement with Malaysia, with the relevant agreement currently being reviewed by Malaysian authorities.
In a Facebook post, Malaysian Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture Dato Sri Tiong King Sing said that during a recent discussion held in Moscow with Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Dmitry Vakhrukov, among the main focus points included Malaysia-Russia tourism cooperation, reciprocal visa-free travel, and air connectivity.
“During the discussion, we agreed that there remains considerable room for growth in the tourism markets of both countries. At the same time, both sides identified visa facilitation as an important factor in driving two-way tourism.
“At present, Russian visitors do not require a visa to enter Malaysia, while Malaysians travelling to Russia must still apply for one. During this visit, some members of my delegation were unable to obtain visas, which has become an obstacle to travel between the two countries,” he said.
Tiong, who is also the MP for Bintulu and assemblyman foe Dudong, said that Vakhrukov noted that both sides need to move forward with a reciprocal visa-free arrangement with Malaysia, with the relevant agreement currently being reviewed by the Malaysian side.
“I said I would discuss the matter with the Home Minister upon my return to Malaysia and follow up on it, in the hope of expediting the process,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a separate post, he said that PAKS Travel, a Russian tour operator, said that should a suitable airline launch a route between Russia and Malaysia, it could consider taking up about 30 to 60 per cent of seats through group seat allocations for sale as travel packages.
Tiong said this followed a meeting with PAKS president and co-founder Maxim Lobanov, who said that the company had previously engaged Russian and Malaysian airlines, and had proposed taking up a proportion of seats on a potential route.
“At present, Russian tourists mainly travel to Malaysia via several Middle Eastern and Chinese airlines. Airfares remain crucial to whether tourism products can be sold competitively,” he said.
He also said he will explore a Moscow-Tashkent-Malaysia connection, while engaging airlines from other countries on using existing routes to Russia to connect to Kuala Lumpur through hubs such as Hanoi and Haikou. — DayakDaily
