Batam - The Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, admitted that he had established communication with the Singaporean Foreign Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, to announce that the Riau Islands (Riau Islands) were ready to welcome tourists.

"Earlier I also called Vivian, because Lagoi (Bintan) is ready to welcome tourists," Luhut said after a limited meeting at Nongsa Point Marina, Batam, Riau Islands, Thursday (2/7/2020).

From the results of these discussions, Luhut explained that the Singapore Government can open international shipping lanes for tourism activities after the General Elections in their country has been held later on July 10, 2020.

"It was mentioned earlier, wait for the election to finish, they (the Government of Singapore, red) will see," he said.

The Lagoi tourist area dares to accept tourists after seeing the development of the Covid-19 case in Bintan which has almost zero cases. Not only the Lagoi tourist area but also other areas such as Nongsa are also ready to welcome tourists. "Earlier I was also asked that here (Nongsa) also enter (open shipping)," he explained.

Regarding foreign workers (TKA) who began to enter the territory of Indonesia, Luhut said that the international entrance had begun to be opened gradually with notes to pay attention to the country where TKA comes from.

Not only for foreign workers, Luhut added that foreign tourists can also come to the country. For Singapore and Malaysia, there were no issues because according to him, the Covid-19 case in that country had started to fall.