KUALA LUMPUR: Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has defended the stricter requirements for a long-term residency programme for foreigners, saying it netted “close to RM1 billion” in the past year.
He said that since the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme has had its financial requirements tightened, the country has attracted some 800 “quality” applicants.
“Each of them is to put RM1 million in a fixed deposit. That is RM800 million in our banking system. Compared to the 2015-2019 period, the government made just RM958 million (during the five years).
“There is a drop in the number of applications now, but we are going for quality,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Saifuddin said that under the old MM2H regime, there were security lapses, hence the stricter rules.
“Some (applicants) were actually ‘spies’. That was why we tightened the regulations. At the same time, we want to be more competitive with other nations,” he said.
In April, FMT reported that the MM2H programme saw a 90% drop in the number of applicants because of tougher conditions imposed.
Applicants are now required to have permanent savings of at least RM1 million and liquid assets of at least RM1.5 million. Previously, they only needed savings of between RM300,000 and RM500,000.
They must now also show an offshore income of at least RM40,000 a month, up from RM10,000.
The MM2H programme is aimed at attracting long-term foreign residents, but new conditions were introduced in 2021 after a freeze during the Covid-19 pandemic.