SAMARAHAN, April 20 — The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) must expedite the process of vetting and regulating the agents of the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, said Sarawak’s Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

He said at the moment, agents for the MM2H programme in the state were unable to renew their business licences and this has created a lot of inconvenience.

He said with no licences, agents cannot accept applications from interested parties all over the world who wanted to take Sarawak as their second home.

"When the licence is not renewed, what happens to their staff? The staff have got to be paid monthly, they cannot just be removed.

"I was informed that there are some (agents) who have already accepted deposits from prospective applicants but cannot be processed. I hope Motac will look into these issues as soon as possible, we cannot keep them hanging,” he told reporters after attending a function here.

On April 17, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing was reported as saying that Motac is set to introduce a screening process for agents and intermediaries associated with the MM2H initiative.

He said any agents failing to meet the new qualifications would not have their licences renewed.

Tiong said that all current agents must re-register, and no automatic renewal of existing licenses would be granted. — Bernama