Difficult to convince foreigners Malaysia is peaceful country

(Bernama) – Difficulty in convincing foreigners that Malaysia is a peaceful and stable country is the key barrier to them joining the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme.

Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said street demonstrations have negative impact on promotional efforts undertaken by the ministry.

“This is the key barrier preventing foreigners from staying in Malaysia for long period,” she said in a written reply to Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) who asked about the breakdown of MM2H participants and barriers faced by the ministry.

Dr Ng said 17,203 foreigners from 119 countries joined MM2H programme from 2002-2011 and the most were China nationals with 2,857 applications.

“They are followed by citizens of Bangladesh (2,082), United Kingdom (1,789) and Japan (1,629).

“The profile of 8,479 participants established since 2007 found that 90.6 percent are male while the remaining 9.4 percent are female,” she added.

Initiatives taken to promote MM2H include encouraging foreign tour operators to offer “MM2H Inspection Tours” to tourists wishing to stay for long period.