Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar has called on the government to revert to the original Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) conditions, saying they were effective in promoting the country as an investment destination while the changes were “very negative”.
He said it is “ridiculous” to apply the new conditions to existing participants of the programme, who may opt to leave the country instead, reported Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
He noted that foreigners may lose confidence in the country if the government continues “shifting the goalposts”.
“This is not the right time to raise fees,” said Sultan Ibrahim in a post on his official Facebook page.
“When we continue to flip-flop on conditions, how can we promote Malaysia as an investment destination?…Drastic changes like this will tarnish our image and will make us a laughingstock of the world.”
Instead of making things better, the new criteria set after the review of the programme will only drive away investors and tourists, he said.
Check out the latest MM2H rules here!
Established in 2002, the MM2H programme was frozen in 2020 for “review and further improvements”. On 11 August, the home ministry announced that the programme would be back online in October, with some changes.
Specifically, the period on which foreigners could stay in the country under the programme has been slashed from 10 years to five years, subject to renewal.
The compulsory fixed deposits in local banks of applicants has also been raised to RM1 million from between RM150,000 and RM300,000 previously. The applicant’s monthly offshore income should also stand at RM40,000, up from RM10,000 previously.
The liquid assets requirements was also jacked up from between RM300,000 and RM500,000 previously to at least RM1.5 million now.
Since the programme is introduced, it has brought in RM40.6 billion to Malaysia, mostly from property acquisitions and compulsory fixed deposits in local banks.
The programme’s participants, which stood at almost 39,000 as of 2020, spent about RM4.9 billion and RM4.4 billion on rent, vehicles, property and immigration fees in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Other sectors that they have contributed to are education, medical, hospitality, travel, entertainment, retail as well as food and beverage (F&B).
Image source from FMT
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