MP urges S’wak govt to give PR status to talented foreigners

SIBU: Sibu MP Oscar Ling hopes to see the Sarawak government giving Permanent Resident (PR) status to more talented foreigners from various fields and aggressively promote the Second Home Programme so as to help push up the economy.

“Hopefully, the Sarawak government will help speed up the approval of applications for PR that had been long overdue,” he said when contacted recently.

Ling disclosed that about 1,200 people here had applied for PR status and were waiting for approval.

“Many of them had gone to the Immigration Department to check on their status but there is still no word on the status of their applications.”

Ling noted that the annual approval for PR status in Sarawak was very low compared to other states.

As a comparison, he said Selangor had given out PR status to about 70,000 applicants whereas Sarawak had approved only 2,399 applications.

“Giving the PR status to them is not about giving citizenship to these people,” he added.

Sarawak, he pointed out, has a low population of only about three million and giving the PR status to these talented people would also help push up Sarawak’s population.

Ling said many of the applicants were foreign wives of local men who had been living in the Sarawak for more than 10 years.

“Even doctors or specialists whose contract with the government had finished and who intended to stay back in Sarawak could not do so because their applications for PR were not approved,” he said.

On the Second Home Programme, Ling said it is a very good policy aimed at attracting investors to come and stay in Sarawak.

“These are retired people and when they come, they will bring in lots of money and spend locally, hence helping to boost the local economy.”

At the moment, a foreigner will only be entitled to the PR status for the Second Home Programme if they bring in at least RM350,000 to RM500,000.

“The PH government feels that the Sarawak government should be more open-minded and give more PR to the foreign wives and also other talented people from various fields.”

Ling said this is good for the future development of the country, especially in the field of e-commerce and other industries.