KUCHING, Oct 26: The Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China Dato Sri Tiong King Sing urges the government to seize the opportunity to attract Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) applicants, especially Chinese visa holders, to East Malaysia.
He believed the effort could provide market confidence and revitalise the tourism industry in East Malaysia.
Tiong also proposed the government classify MM2H applicants into different groups according to their purpose, including retirement, business and investment, education, medical tourism and so forth.
“East Malaysia has great potential and excellent prospects to develop the MM2H programme.
“If the local authorities express interest in this project, a plan could be drafted and meetings held with relevant stakeholders to formulate a desirable action plan benefitting the people.
“Sabah can, in turn, become a favourable destination to attract Chinese applicants, simultaneously stimulating economic growth with increased revenues by investors via real estate development, food and beverage, medical, insurance, and tourism industries.
“We should establish clear criteria for the ‘silver-haired’ demographic, as this category of applicants should fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Tourism,” he said on a Facebook post after paying a courtesy call on Sabah’s Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin at the latter’s office in Sabah today.
Tiong added the relevant government departments should actively identify domestic high-end residential areas, tourism hotspots and other attractive recommendations to the appropriate applicants for their retirement plans.
With regards to education visas, business and investment immigration visas, and other types of visas, he said the application procedures should be carried out by other relevant government agencies with different criteria processes.
“Therefore, it is imperative that the relevant departments have a proper understanding (based on) case-by-case situation of the applicants to facilitate and formulate consistent application criteria for different circumstances, for instance, the minimum investment threshold, bank deposits, application fees instead of grouping all these criteria into the same application,” he added.
Additionally, Tiong said the authorities should also consider the guardians accompanying foreign students.
One of the proposals, he said, could be issuing a three to six-month education visa to aid in facilitating them in settling in Malaysia to take care of their children.
He believed their presence to Malaysia could spur demand for real estate in the country while boosting consumption in the domestic economy. — DayakDaily
