KUALA LUMPUR: Special passes for investors or groups of expatriates will be issued starting April 1 to enable them to stay longer in the country for their respective business and investment purposes.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said it is a single window method to facilitate the entry of this group with the issuance of passes being done electronically.
“We will issue new passes only for investors, to enable easier entry and ease doing business is what we want to see.
“The faster we process their applications, the easier it is for them to accept the business climate in our country, which is the role of the Immigration Department,“ he said during Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this in response to a supplementary question by Lee Chean Chung (PH-Petaling Jaya) on whether the Immigration Department is prepared to simplify and provide facilities so as to reduce dependence on agents, especially involving foreign investors in obtain certain passes.
Responding to Lee’s original question regarding service improvements, he said the Home Ministry (KDN) is committed to completing the remaining 11,700 applications for entry passes and permits by June in an effort to facilitate delivery to the people.
Saifuddin Nasution said that currently, 80 per cent of every 100 entry permit applications are from foreign wives who are married to local citizens.
Overall, he said the Immigration Department issues nearly three million passes a year with the most popular passes being the Temporary Work Visit Pass, Student Pass and Spouse Pass.
Through the digitalisation agenda, he said several popular types of passes could be managed online which would save the government’s expenditure including saving RM13 million on printing pass stickers to be affixed to passports.
‘Now, there is no need for stickers because pass holders only need to carry a device that displays the status of their pass,‘ he said.
He said that for Temporary Work Visit Passes that have expired and need to be renewed, employers no longer need to come to the counter to renew their workers’ passes.
As a result, he said the pass service counters experienced a 70 per cent reduction in congestion, in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s call for public services to move towards digitalisation.
