PUTRAJAYA, April 10 — The expatriate permit application process will be shortened from 87 days to five working days beginning June.

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the five-day processing period was for new permit applications or permit renewal.

"The decision to shorten the expatriate application period is aimed at simplifying the affairs of investors who want to enter Malaysia,” he told a press conference after chairing the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) meeting here today.

Rafizi said companies that have good track record in terms of expatriate employment and compliance with the laws are eligible for the shortened application process.

"The permit application system will be upgraded and the application procedure simplified with the integration of data combined under one system compared to the previous four stages of the application process,” he said.

On the application process for Planning Permission (KM) by the local authorities (PBT), Rafizi said Pemudah also agreed that it should be implemented with best practices so that it can be within a short time range of at least 58 days.

"Currently, we have a big gap between PBT in terms of the KM application process, some can reach 200 days. Pemudah’s decision today is for us to adopt an agile process, for us to bring the best practices from PBTs that can quickly process KM to other PBTs across the country,” he said.

He said Pemudah also proposed that the federal government consider creating a competitive ecosystem, where local authorities which show efficiency be given due consideration when deciding on development allocations.

"It’s time to bring that best practices around the country, but we also want to create the competitive ecosystem that local authorities understand enough to become efficient because they would be rewarded,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rafizi said the Academy in Industry programme would be introduced from June targeting 100,000 workers in 10,000 companies to improve workers’ skills to meet the industry’s needs.

"These companies are given space to develop their own training modules and programmes,” he said, adding that, as a start, 10 large companies would be involved in the pilot project. — Bernama