PETALING JAYA: The Tourism Ministry is targeting 3,000 applications for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme next year.

Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai said up to November this year, 1,700 applications had been approved.

This year, most of the applicants were from Britain, Japan, and South Korea.

“We need to teach the 200 agents engaged by the ministry to handle the programme according to the guidelines and regulations.

“By next year they would be more experienced in handling the applications,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Lim added that the agents had formed an association, and the ministry officials held regular dialogues with them to ensure they understood the law properly.

Although many people had submitted applications, he said most could not be approved as the required documents were not attached.

“It is not that we are delaying approving the applications, but we need proper documents to show that the right people are chosen,” he added.

Since the programme started in 1996, which was then known as the Silver Hair programme, close to 10,700 applications had been approved.

Source: TheStar

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