KUCHING, Dec 13 — The state Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Ministry aims to shorten the approval period from the date of receiving applications for the Sarawak My Second Home (SM2H) programme, its minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said today.
He said his ministry will iron out any problems that slow down the process, which in some cases takes more than six months to approve.
“My target is to approve the applications within three months, but as we become more efficient and the agents who deal with the applications get more familiar with the process, then probably to two months and perhaps, one day, to just one month to approve the applications,” he told reporters after launching homestay Amaraz Sdn Bhd’s service centre here.
“But from my ministry’s side, we will try to improve ourselves,” he said, adding that all the applications are now done online, unlike before when they were processed manually.
“That is why we will keep on improving ourselves,” he said.
He said the SM2H programme seems to be picking up very well, saying that his ministry has several backlog cases that are waiting to be approved at a working committee meeting that he chairs.
“The high number of applications has never been good before, even though the second home programme has been in existence for many years,” he said, adding that the response for the programme has been overwhelming over the last two years.
Karim said among the reasons is that the applicants find Sarawak very conducive, safe, and politically stable.
“Apart from that, English and Chinese languages are widely spoken in Sarawak, apart from our culture,” he said.
He said the amount of levy at RM150,000 fixed by the state government for each application is also reasonable to them.
“All those retirees who are looking towards Sarawak as their second home, of course, will look at it from the financial point of view,” he said.
He said the RM150,000 levy imposed by Sarawak compared to the RM1 million levy imposed under Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, is reasonably cheap.
He said the applicants who have been approved under the SM2H programme can also buy property with a minimum price of RM600,000 or they can also rent houses or stay in hotels.
However, he said they must stay in Sarawak for a minimum of 30 days within a visa period of five years.
Karim said most of the applications are from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, and South South Korea.
