THE Malaysia My Second Home (MMH2) programme contributed about RM2.9bil to the national economy last year, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the amount included the collection of visa fees worth RM6.85mil, opening of permanent bank savings accounts in the country worth RM542.55mil and property purchases worth RM673.96mil.
However, he pointed out that the estimate did not include the average household spending based on the children’s education and other additional cost such as the purchase of CBU vehicles.
“The MMH2 programme has pushed up Malaysia’s name at the international level.
Loke had asked the ministry to state the benefits of the MMH2 programme to the country and the latest figures of those registered under the programme.
Nazri said an annual research conducted by Japan Longstay Foundation indicated that Malaysia was the top pick for long-term stay among Japanese nationals aged above 40 since 2006.
“Since its inception in 2002 until November last year, 31,723 applications from 126 countries were approved under the programme.
“China forms the biggest number consisting of 7,976 approved applications, followed by Japan (4,127), Bangladesh (3,399), the United Kingdom (2,361), Iran (1,331), Singapore (1,258), Taiwan (1,175), South Korea (1,174), Pakistan (958), India (861), and other nationals (7,103),” said Nazri.
Asked whether the ministry was willing to ease some regulations to attract more people to invest under the programme in Labuan, Nazri said the ministry could not simply ease the rules to ensure that Malaysia remains as “premium market”.
“We can cooperate in terms of finding housing developers who wanted to invest on projects worth more than RM1mil in Labuan.
“It will make it more attractive to the markets from north-east Asia such as China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan,” he said.
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