KUALA LUMPUR: The Tourism Ministry has started issuing identification cards for expatriates participating in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme.

The ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Dr Ong Hong Peng said 30 people had been issued the silver-coloured cards since March 9.

“The idea is to make the lives of the expatriates more convenient so that they will not have to carry their passports everywhere for the purpose of identification.

“They can also use the cards for things like applying for a credit card or insurance,” he said at a press conference after the launch of the MM2H re-branding exercise yesterday.

“We have been calling up the participants to come and apply for the card so we expect to issue more in the coming months,” he added.

He said other improvements under the re-branding exercise included allowing MM2H participants to invest actively and work in critical areas where Malaysians did not have the expertise, and extending five-year social visit passes issued earlier to 10 years.

“Foreigners married to Malaysian citizens will also have a choice now to join the programme,” he said, adding that the MM2H centre would now have an immigration officer attached to it to save the applicant a trip to the Immigration Department.

According to statistics released at the re-branding exercise which was launched by Tengku Mahkota Kelantan Tengku Mohd Faris Petra Sultan Ismail Petra, there are now 12,566 participants in the MM2H programme, with most coming from China, Bangladesh and Britain.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/24/nation/3539766&sec=nation

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