Malaysia to create passport-free zones for foreigners

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 3: Visitors from Singapore entering certain areas in Malaysia's southern Johor state will be exempt from immigration and customs clearance in a bid to draw more tourists, a newspaper said today.

The new regulation would not limit how long visitors can stay in the free access zones that woul stretch from the present checkpoint at the causeway to Stulang Laut in Johor Baru and from Gelang Patah to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas, the New Straits Times said.

''The idea is to promote cross border activities such as tourism,'' the newspaper quoted Johor Economic Planning Unit deputy director Mohd Noorazam Osman as saying.

''Foreigners can live and work in the free access zones or live in the free access zones and travel to work in Singapore.'' The move to create the free access zones are part of a government plan to develop Johor into a new economic growth area similar to Shenzhen, the booming southern Chinese port city.

Johor is separated from Singapore by a tiny strip of water.

Malaysia and Singapore, which split in 1965 after a brief union in the years following independence from Britain, have deep economic ties, but diplomatic ties have sometimes been prickly.

Reuters