FINANCE Minister Lim Guan Eng has told Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd to “go easy on the collateral” for the RM1 billion Tourism Infrastructure Fund relaunched today.

Lim said the bank should make it easy for investors and entrepreneurs to get access to the funds to assist the cash-strapped federal government in continuing to develop the nation’s tourism infrastructure. 

He said since the government did not have the “money that should be there”, the fund was mooted as an alternative to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in partnerships with the federal government. 

The fund, which Lim described as using a 4P approach – private, public, professional, people – aims to provide financial assistance to companies dealing with or involved in tourism-related activities and services. 

It was relaunched in Kuching by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohammadin Ketapi.

The government allocates the funds to the bank, which in turn offers a financing rate from 4% to 5.5% per annum

The facility is available until the end of 2020 or until the fund has been fully utilised.

Lim said he hoped the fund could play a catalytic role to spur investments in the development of tourism facilities. 

“Malaysia is endowed with white sandy beaches, tropical islands and world heritage sites. It simply is not enough to draw in the crowd. 

“We still need world-class infrastructure to bring our visitors to the destination with relative ease, and have in place comfortable accommodations and other facilities to ensure their stay with us is a memorable one. 

“Suffice to say, the development and provision of tourism infrastructure is a prerequisite to turn a place into a popular tourist destination.”

Mohammadin said the fund was available to all tourism infrastructure projects that “contribute to the development of the tourism industry” and is not limited to hotels, convention centres, facilities related to education, medical or agro tourism. 

“Tourism is among the biggest and fastest-growing sectors in the global economy, playing an important role in job creation, export revenue and domestic value-added. 

“The industry continues to be a significant contributor to the country’s economic growth,” he said.

With his ministry targeting 30 million tourist arrivals and tourism receipts of around RM100 billion in its Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign, Mohammadin said the prospect looked positive thus far.

He said in the first quarter of this year, arrivals increased by 2.7%, or 6.7 million visitors, compared with 6.5 million during the same period last year.

Tourist expenditure also registered a positive growth of 16.9% for the first quarter of this year, Mohammadin added.

The Tourism Infrastructure Fund is a reintroduction of an existing fund managed by Bank Pembangunan. 

It is the fourth in a series of funds Bank Pembangunan has launched this year as part of a government mandate under Budget 2019 to serve various economic development agendas. 

The latest financing facility comes after the RM3 billion Industrial Digitalisation Transformation Fund, the RM1 billion Sustainable Development Financing Fund and the RM500 million Public Transport Fund. – June 21, 2019.