At first glance, the recently announced Premium Visa Program (PVIP) by the Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin that would allow “Residency Through Investment” seems to be a timely program to attract “business tycoons” to invest in Malaysia in the post-pandemic landscape.[1] While this program is not necessarily a badly conceived program, there are other policies which can be implemented to achieve the desired objectives more effectively. More importantly, there needs to be a comprehensive approach by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) together with other Ministries such as the Ministry of Human Resources (MoHR) and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to make Malaysia an attractive and safe place for non-Malaysians from different groupings to live, learn, work, play and invest in the country for the long term for the benefit of the country.
Firstly, rather than launch a new program like the PVIP, MOHA should roll back the unpopular revisions to the Malaysian My Second Home (MM2H) policy that was announced in 2021 including (i) increasing the monthly foreign offshore income of RM40,0000 (ii) increasing the Fixed Deposit requirement from RM150,000 to RM1,000,000 (iii) showing proof of liquid assets of RM1.5 million and (iv) requiring a 90 day residency minimum stay period. The MM2H program, which started in 2002, is already a well-known program among the expatriate community and has seen more than 40,000 successful applicants since its launch.[2]
In a parliamentary reply to my colleague Hannah Yeoh in August this year, the Home Minister stated that 1461 people had withdrawn from the MM2H program from Sept 2021 to June 2022.[3] There were only 267 new applications for this program and I am confident that most of these new applications were for the MM2H program in Sarawak as the Sarawak government still maintains the previous guidelines for this program including requiring only a 15 day minimum residency period.[4] Without changing the harsh conditions imposed by Putrajaya on the MM2H program, it is likely that we will see more people withdrawing from the MM2H program than new applicants for the Premium Visa Program.
Secondly, rather than focus on the “business tycoons” segment of the global population, who can invest in Malaysia through other ways such as setting up their own companies to buy properties and factories, we should instead be focusing on attracting skilled talent to work in Malaysia, especially given the tight global labour market conditions. Singapore, for example, has recently announced the Overseas networks and Expertise (ONE) pass for expats and their spouses to work in the country.[5] Indonesia has also launched a digital nomad visa for freelance and remote workers to work, live and play in places like Bali.[6] Thailand has also recently launched a 10-year Long Term Residency (LTR) visa aimed at digital entrepreneurs and foreigners with specialized skills sets.[7] With the continued fall in the unemployment rate in Malaysia and the increase in announced Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), this is the right time to get rid of unnecessary red tape in the recruitment of highly skill expatriates to complement the local workforce such as the requirement to advertise jobs at the MyFutureJobs website for 30 days before an expatriate can be hired.[8] At the same time, a digital nomad visa for remote and freelance workers should also be introduced as regional competition for global talent heats up.[9] Malaysia needs to get its act together in this area especially since we are a much more cost-effective place to operate from compared to Singapore, which is seeing huge increases in the cost of housing because of the influx of expatriates relocating from China and Hong Kong to the city state.[10]
Thirdly, the Home Minister should not forget about a segment of the population that has the potential to become more productive members of the workforce and at the same time contribute to Malaysia’s economic recovery, namely the undocumented migrants. Many of the almost 200,000 undocumented migrants[11] are already working informally. But because they do not have any official status in the country, many of them are exploited at their workplaces including being abused by their employers, being forced to work long hours without proper compensation and in some cases, being cheated of their wages. Most of these undocumented migrants are not allowed to open bank accounts which prevents them from accessing basic financial services and exposes them to greater risk of being robbed of their cash savings.[12] Rather than forcing these migrants to register under the Tracking Refugees Information System (TRIS), which has been criticised by many including groups representing refugees[13], the Home Minister should instead come up with a program to allow undocumented migrants to apply for work legally and to provide them with the necessary protections which workers in Malaysia have access to. This should be a systematic program for all undocumented migrants since past pilot projects involving Rohingya and Syrian refugees seemed to have not been effective.
Malaysia should capitalize on our location as a safe, cost-effective, and attractive place to live, learn work, play, and invest for different groups of the international community and not just for the super-rich. In the long-term, the country will benefit from a more comprehensive migration and labour market reforms. Let us NOT squander away these opportunities which have been provided to us as the result of the hard work of the front-liners in the successful implementation of our COVID vaccination policy under Minister Khairy Jamaluddin which has allowed us to open up our economy and borders in a safe and timely manner.
[5] https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/singapore-hunts-global-rainmakers-new-expat-visa
[6] https://www.indonesiaevisas.com/news/digital-nomad-visa
[7] https://nomadgirl.co/thailand-digital-nomad-visa-what-is-there-and-what-is-coming/
[8] https://esd.imi.gov.my/portal/latest-news/announcement/myfuturejobs-recommendation-for-expatriates/
[11] According to registrations with the UNHCR
[12] If each registered refugee can deposit RM1000 in a bank account, this would result in total deposits of at least RM200 million.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/11/refugees-in-malaysia-worry-refugee-tracking-system-a-trap