This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 23, 2023 - October 29, 2023

When tabling Budget 2024, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government will ease existing conditions to apply for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme to increase tourist and foreign investor arrivals. The move is expected to increase investment activities in the domestic financial market and property sector.

This assurance comes two years after the previous government said MM2H would return after a one-year hiatus but with a more stringent threshold and financial requirements. The stricter rules were to attract high-quality participants who could contribute positively to the country’s economic growth and for security reasons as participants were said to be using Malaysia as a “transit” point to carry out undesirable activities.

As a result, applicants shied away from Malaysia — data shared by the government in April showed that there was a 90% drop in applications as other countries, including Thailand, made their programmes more attractive to foreigners.

Following the poor response, the unity government had said it would review the conditions and hinted at the relaxation of the rules. However, in June this year, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution ­Ismail explained that the criteria for MM2H had to be tightened because some successful applicants were found to have been involved in spying activities. His statement created confusion as to whether the rules would indeed be relaxed.

Does the recent announcement by the premier mean that the country has successfully ended the spying activities?

While the uncertainty has remained, interested applicants are skirting the strict rules for entering the peninsula by applying to enter via the Sarawak-Malaysia My Second Home programme, which has less stringent requirements, so that successful applicants can still come and live in the peninsula.

While the recent announcement to ease MM2H requirements is a move in the right direction, it is hoped that all parties will be in sync when making statements and that there will be no flip-flopping on policies to confuse applicants. We need certainty, otherwise these wealthy groups will opt to spend their money elsewhere.

And if spying is still an issue, the vetting process should be tighter, not the eligibility criteria.

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