BINTULU: The 16th Borneo International Kite Festival (BIKF) which is scheduled to be held from Sept 30 till Oct 4 this year will be postponed to a later date.

BIKF chairman Datuk Talib Zulpilip announced the postponement of the international event after chairing the main organising committee meeting at a hotel here yesterday.

He said due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most international events have been affected either by postponement or certain limitation imposed by the organisers.

“Since BIKF involves mostly kite flyers from foreign countries and being a popular annual event with thousands of people expected to come, it would be difficult to observe the social distancing rule,” he said during a press conference.

Talib said it was quite difficult to ascertain how bad the Covid-19 situation in other foreign countries was and it would be very risky to allow foreigners to come during this critical
period.

He said Malaysians were very fortunate as the government and other relevant authorities managed to control the spread of the virus in the country but the war has not been won and extra precautionary measures still need to be strictly observed by all parties.

“To prevent Covid-19 infection from these foreign countries, we have to postpone
BIKF this year,” said the Minister of Integrity and Ombudsman.

Talib said Covid-19 is a global pandemic and affected major international events in other countries.

He said the postponement of major events might not be good economically for local traders but that decision needs to be adhered to by everyone during this period.