Government Restores Visa-Free Transit Facility

PUTRAJAYA, May 24 (Bernama) -- The government will restore the visa-free transit facility for nationals from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka from July 1, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Monday. He said the government felt that the facility would benefit the country's tourism industry. "At one time, we had it (the visa-free transit facility) but it was withdrawn for certain reasons. "We discussed (this matter) again because it is beneficial in terms of tourism," he said after chairing a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Tourism, here. Also present was Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen. Muhyiddin said the government would hold discussions with the airlines which transit Malaysia carrying the nationals of the four countries before announcing the details of the facility. He said the Home Ministry had proposed that a special criteria be established before the visa-free transit facility was introduce to ensure that it was not abused. "It has been decided that several matters would have to be adhered to. Upon agreement, nationals from the four countries can be allowed entry with the visa-free transit facility," he said.

In a related development, he said the government agreed with a Tourism Ministry proposal to have more flights to Malaysia in an effort to increase the number of tourists coming to the country. "We ask airlines such as MAS, AirAsia and AirAsia X to negotiate for more landing rights and so on, and bring more tourists to the country," he said. Muhyiddin said Malaysia registered 7.62 million tourist arrivals between January and April this year, up from the 7.34 million for the corresponding period last year. He said the country also rose up the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) list of tourist arrivals, taking the ninth place last year compared to the 11th in 2008. He also said that the tourism sector contributed RM12.9 billion between January and March this year to the nation's coffers compared to RM12 billion for the corresponding period in 2008.

Muhyiddin said the government had also decided that foreigners married to Malaysians could participate in the "Malaysia My Second Home" programme which was hitherto restricted to foreign couples who fulfilled certain conditions. "In this way, we can encourage more people who intend to live in Malaysia to participate in the programme. Details of the programmes will be announced shortly," he said. Muhyiddin said the government would come up with one more tourism product by introducing the "parks and gardens" tourism.

To encourage tourist arrivals from the Middle East during the Ramadan Muslim fasting month, he said the government would hold special promotions in that region to draw them to Malaysia during that period. "We want to tell the potential tourists (from the Middle East) that we have various facilities for them to undertake their fast, perform prayers, break their fast, and have the "sahur" meal with various foods, including their own," he said.