Issuance Of VOA To Tourists Won't Be Revived - DPM

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 2 (Bernama) -- The government has decided not to revive the issuance of visa on arrival (VOA) to foreign tourists at the entry points into the country, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. The Deputy Prime Minister said the move to revoke the implementation of the VOA was due to the fact that the facility was being abused previously. "In the past, we gave flexibility to several nations if their visitors came to this country, they don't have the visa...(but) the visa could be issued to them upon arrival at the entry point into Malaysia. "We notice that this (VOA) was being abused and so on. We agreed that the VOA be revoked or discontinued," he said. He said this after chairing the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants, here on Monday.

In another development, Muhyiddin said the meeting today decided that 29 of the 50 recommendations and initiatives submitted to the management of foreigners laboratory earlier, could be implemented soon. He said another 19 initiatives needed further study while two were dropped because they were not appropriate for implementation. "For the 29 initiatives that had been agreed upon, we will look into the matter. I have asked every agency and ministry, which are tasked with implementing the initiatives, to determine the most suitable time for implementation. "I also asked them to bring back (the report) to the cabinet committee at the next meeting," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the meeting also agreed that a permanent secretariat be set up as a mechanism to follow up on the implementation of the laboratory initiatives of the foreigners management laboratory. He said 12 officers from the various agencies and ministries would be emplaced at the secretariat, which was placed under the Home Ministry to monitor the implementation of all initiatives involving various fields.