KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Organisers urged Communication and Digital Minister Fahmil Fadzil today to consider a single government entity to process all the necessary approvals to hold international artistes’ concerts in Malaysia.

In a town hall meeting involving the minister and the Central Agency for Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artists (Puspal), they also asked that approval of visas for foreign artistes be expedited.

Managing director of media.monks Munas Van Boonstra said today that she has organised concerts in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia for nearly six years, but has opted to stop doing so here due to the onerous administrative and tax requirements.

"Because it’s the most expensive, difficult, and hardest to make money in the four cities I’ve worked in,” she said.

"We need to have an ecosystem for culture, art, live events, and for comedy but someone needs to spearhead it.”

In Malaysia, Van Boonstra said, organisers must visit separate government agencies and departments to deal with each specific aspect of a concert, which added multiple layers of red tape to the application process.

According to Art, Live Festival and Events Association (ALIFE) president Rizal Kamal, the visa approvals for foreign artistes also needed streamlining, saying the process that should take 14 days was now typically three months’ long and occasionally even slower.

Rizal said this could be addressed in part by the new online process due to be implemented this year, adding that organisers were keen for this to arrive in order to expedite matters.

"So, we’re looking forward for that because the industry moves very fast and we need the speed of the application to improve,” he said.

He also urged for clarity on the definition of "large-scale events” that would be prohibited by Puspal in the vicinity of Islamic holidays, saying there was no specifics on whether this was based on absolute numbers or a venue’s capacity.

"What’s considered large-scale? Is 700 people at the Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre? Or Axiata Arena with 8,000 to 10,000 people?” he said, adding that this should be resolved this year itself.

During the townhall session, other industry players also requested the government to consider waiving the 25 per cent entertainment tax for small-scale events, saying this would help spur the category here.

"I urge the government to remove the tax imposed on artists that are here to hold workshops, educate, or participate in exchange programmes because our art industry is still in a growing stage,” said Goh You Ping who represented the Reformartsi art group.

When asked about the views that the current Puspal guidelines were "conservative”, Fahmi noted that these had been drawn up and approved during the previous administration.

"Remember the guidelines were passed before I became the minister,” said Fahmi.

However, he said his ministry would consider all views from the meeting today and request that Puspal address them in a separate meeting.

On December 31 last year, Puspal issued a new guideline that prohibited large-scale concerts and live performances by international artists on the eve of and during Islamic public holidays unless allowed by the respective Islamic authorities.