THE government has not cancelled the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, just frozen it temporarily, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Nancy Shukri told the Dewan Rakyat today.

According to Nancy, the suspension was to allow the ministry to make detailed specifications and improvements to the programme, comprising safety, property, wellbeing and economic impact.

“We have not finalised the cancellation of the programme, we are reviewing and devising certain conditions. That is the reason why we returned the applications, to enable the applicants to meet the new conditions.

“We do not want to approve their applications and later hold them back thus disappointing the applicants. The deposits are not forfeited, applicants can get them back from their agents,” she said in response to a supplementary question from Maria Chin Abdullah (PH-Petaling Jaya) on how the government could provide financial aid to programme participants who had paid their deposits.

Nancy said, although the ministry was aware that suspending the programme would affect the country’s economy, it has to be done because MM2H has not been reviewed since it was launched in 2002.

Replying to a supplementary question from Mohd Salim Sharif (BN-Jempol), the minister said almost of 66,500 applications had been approved since 2018, with the highest number of applicants for the programme coming from China.

Besides China, applicants also came from Japan, Bangladesh, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Iran and India, she added. – Bernama, November 2, 2020.