Sabah gets full authority over its MM2H programme

• The latest development came about after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur between Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew and federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing that "resolved their misunderstandings".

KOTA KINABALU (July 21): Sabah has confirmed that is has been given full control to run its own MM2H (Sabah-MM2H) programme after the state and federal authorities ironed out their issues.

The latest development came about after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur between Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew and federal Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing that “resolved their misunderstandings”, according to a report by The Star on Friday (July 19).

“Tiong has agreed to empower Sabah with our foreign residency programme after our meeting.

“This means Sabah can establish its own terms and conditions for the Sabah-MM2H,” said Liew in a statement.

She added that Sabah is allowed to process applications and issue the Sabah-MM2H pass to successful applicants.

Tiong said that the enforcement of Sabah-MM2H would be passed to Sabah, Liew revealed.

According to her statement, existing MM2H companies previously licensed by the federal ministry will have to obtain a special licence from the state authorities and comply with the Sabah-MM2H terms and conditions if they wish to switch to state’s programme.

Liew said the meeting with Tiong was productive as both parties clarified several terms and conditions for participation, stated the report by The Star.

On June 30, Sabah announced that Sabah-MM2H programme has received approval from the federal government and Motac, with an expected approval timeline of around eight to ten weeks.

The state government then went ahead to accept applications from participants starting from July 1.

But earlier, Motac had issued a circular on May 27 to all licensed agents handling MM2H applications, including those in Sabah and Sarawak, directing them to halt operations.

The Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry then wrote to Motac the following day about plans to launch the Sabah-MM2H programme.

On May 31, the federal ministry replied that “no one is allowed to process new applications for Sabah-MM2H until further notice”.

Following Sabah’s decision to allow applications on July 1 for its MM2H scheme, Motac issued a statement that it did not approve any criteria for the Sabah-MM2H programme.

Motac added that the decision to launch the Sabah MM2H scheme with its own criteria was made without consulting the former.

“The conditions were set unilaterally by the state’s tourism, culture, and environment ministry without consulting the federal ministry,” Motac said.

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