Tiong said in a statement today that once his ministry finalises, verifies and signs off on the state’s SMM2H regulations, it will delegate all authority on the matter to the Sabah government in a move expected within the next week.

“The ministry held a special meeting (yesterday) with Sabah’s tourism, culture and environment minister Christina Liew to discuss Sabah’s version of the MM2H programme.

“The meeting aimed to explore and scrutinise various terms and regulations to find solutions that ensure a win-win situation for both the federal and Sabah governments,” he said.

Tiong said Sabah had earlier suspended its SMM2H programme, initially slated for launch on June 1, due to the nationwide termination of agency licences.

Liew said her ministry will supervise the programme and Sabah can come up with its own terms and conditions, the Borneo Post reported.

“My ministry will appoint representatives to handle participants’ applications. We will be empowered to process applications and issue the MM2H pass to successful applicants.

“I was assured that the enforcement task will be passed to us whereby we can come up with our own version,” Liew said today.

She added that revised terms and regulations for new participants under the national MM2H programme will serve as a guideline, but insisted that Sabah will not be bound by them.

Earlier this month, Tiong’s ministry denied that the SMM2H programme, which began accepting applications on July 1, had received federal approval.

The ministry said it was not informed of and had not approved the criteria set for the state’s MM2H programme.

It said the state’s tourism, culture, and environment ministry had set the conditions unilaterally without consulting the federal ministry.