MoTAC currently vetting, regulating agents of MM2H programme — Minister

The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (MoTAC) is currently vetting and regulating the agents of the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme in detail for the benefit of all parties.

The minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said this in clarifying news reports that agents for the MM2H programme were unable to renew their business licences upon the expiry on March 31.

According to him, MoTAC has been given responsibility of promoting and marketing the MM2H programme, but at the same time, it is currently examining and regulating the agents of this programme for the benefit of all parties.

“It is emphasised that all agents need to re-register their businesses via the channels provided according to the set conditions, which also include agents whose licences have expired and need to reapply for registration.

“All of these must go through a review process and approval would be given if the application is made in accordance with the necessary conditions,” he said in his Facebook post.

Tiong admitted to MoTAC having received many complaints from the applicants who participated in the MM2H programme.

“Undeniably, there are also some agents who charge their customers high fees, up to tens of thousands of ringgit, but that does not mean that their applications are guaranteed to pass as every application must go through the same process, and approval to be only given if the applications comply with the set conditions.

“If the application process fails, then those bearing the losses and being really affected would be the applicants themselves, who are the clients of the agent.

“That’s why some customers or potential participants of the MM2H programme felt that they had been cheated by their respective agents. Eventually, some agents lost contact with the customers who had no other way to get the payments back.”

Tiong acknowledged that such a situation did give a negative perception of the country.

“Not only that, during the process of approving residence visa documents for this MM2H programme, MoTAC did detect a number of agents who leased or rented their licences to other parties. After investigation, it was found that the ‘agent’ or ‘company’ concerned had no office or no valid company phone number.”

Nonetheless, Tiong advised MM2H Consultants Association president Anthony Liew not to politicise this matter, or try to confuse the public with inaccurate assumptions.

The minister said the MM2H programme participant’s visa renewal had nothing to do with MM2H agent licensing.

“They are two different things. For holders of MM2H passes that have expired, they can continue to deal at the MoTAC One-Stop Centre for renewals.

“I have also instructed the department under MoTAC to help applicants renew the passes during this transition period, so there should be no problems.”