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Malaysia Second Home Programme

Bangladesh among top 3 countries

Diplomatic Correspondent
Bangladesh is among the top three countries after China and Japan to avail itself of the "Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H)" programme with 2,923 Bangladeshis so far taking the offer.
This year 285 more Bangladeshis have applied for enrolment in the programme to get five years' residence permit by making minimum investment of US $100,000.
Disclosing the figure at a "Meet-the-Press" programme at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday, Malaysian High Commissioner in Dhaka Norlin Othman said mostly business
people from Bangladesh invested their money to set up their businesses in Malaysia under the MM2H.
“They’ve their businesses there and MM2H programme helps operate their business smoothly," she said, adding that they (Bangladeshi businesspeople) also source money from their global business destinations like the USA, the UK and Canada apart from sourcing from their family members living in developed countries and their businesses.
Normally a foreign national gets 30 days' visa to stay in Malaysia but under this
second home programme one can get residence permit for five years with other facilities.
Asked if the Bangladeshi nationals also include political figures, the Malaysian envoy smilingly avoided to reply.
According to the Malaysian government rules, to settle there under the MM2H programme, one needs to deposit liquid assets worth at least RM 500,000 (about Tk 1.22 crore) and show offshore income of RM 10,000 (about Tk 2.45 lakh) per month.
Bangladeshis started taking up the offer in 2003 when 32 citizens chose to settle in Malaysia under the programme.
In reply to a question, the high commissioner said there has been minister-level discussion and Malaysia is ready to open up its manpower market for Bangladesh in a number of areas, including construction and "house-manager" (domestichelp).
In this context, she said an agreement was reached at the ministerial level of the two countries to recruit Bangladeshi workers for manufacturing and construction sectors apart from plantation sector.
Norlin said a joint task force is work-
ing to figure out the modalities of recruitment of workers for these two new sectors.
Justifying the government-to-government (G2G) process, she said the government has introduced this mechanism only with Bangladesh to discourage the frauds, cheats and mistreatment of the workers.
The envoy said Malaysia recruits workers from 16 countries including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam but they don't have this mechanism with those countries.
The minimum pay under the G2G recruitment is 900 Ringgit (US$ 300) with medical and leave facilities.
She informed that at present three million foreign workers are employed in Malaysia, which has a population of 28 million.
In reply to another question, the high commissioner said about half a million Bangladeshis are living in Malaysia; of them 3,20,000 have valid documents. The Malaysian authorities are legalising the undocumented foreign workers.
Asked about the volume of bilateral trade which is heavily tilted towards Malaysia, Norlin said Bangladesh needs to concentrate on making high-
end diversified products to bridge the trade gap with Malaysia.
Bangladesh is the third largest trading partner of Malaysia after India and Pakistan. She said Bangladesh is also the sixth investment destination of Malaysia with biggest investment in telecommunications and power sectors.
Asked about the impact of hartal on overseas investment in Bangladesh, Norlin, who came to the National Press Club defying the BNP sponsored hartal, said Bangladesh has a vibrant democratic process and hartal is part of the democratic process.
She observed that hartal is only one factor but there are other important factors like infrastructure, good transport, power supply and political stability should be in place to attract foreign investment.
Norlin said Bangladesh has a lot of potentials and prospects but unfortunately there is a lack of coordination among different authorities.
General Secretary of the Jatiya Press Club Syed Abdal Ahmad delivered the welcome speech, while senior vice president Kazi Rawnak Hossain chaired the session.