Malaysian tourism minister apologises for June's causeway jams

Malaysia's Tourism Minister apologised yesterday for the inconveniences caused to Singaporeans when the new fingerprint-scanning system was introduced in June, reported The Straits Times.

Speaking at the launch of Tourism Malaysia's latest publicity campaign at Marina Bay Sands, Dr Ng Yen Yen said: "I do apologise for the hiccups in the month of June and July when we first implemented the biometric system."

The biometric fingerprint-scanning system requires all commuters to have their fingers scanned to clear immigration.

When it was first introduced on June, it caused a seven-hour jam along the Causeway, causing many motorists stuck in the jam to abort their trips.

The minister said that this had some negative impact as the number of tourists visiting Malaysia from Singapore registered a drop. However, she was unable to give figures on the dip.

Dr Ng also noted that having "fast and easy" clearance at its immigration checkpoints is a factor which Singaporeans look out for.

Unveiling Tourism Malaysia's latest bus advertisements, she said Malaysia is taking steps to improve the immigration system.

Last year, tourists from Singapore made some 13 million trips to Malaysia, constituting more than half of the 24.6 million visitors to Malaysia.

Singapore contributed RM28.4 billion (S$11.6 billion) in tourism dollars out of the total of RM56.5 billion.

Source - asiaone