KUCHING: The Sarawak government is actively pursuing autonomous rights over the tourism sector, said state Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
He said his ministry would continue talks with the federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry on the proposal to amend item 25A of the Federal List (List I) to Concurrent List (List III) in the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution that mentions "tourism".
"We will actively pursue the right to manage tourism under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), with help from Deputy Minister in the Premier's Department (Law, MA63 and Federal-State Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali and the state Attorney-General's Chambers.
"We want Sarawak to be given the authority to manage and regulate tourism," he said in his winding up speech at the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly today.
Karim said the federal Tourism Ministry had delegated authority under the Tourism Industry Act 1992 and its subsidiary laws to the permanent secretary of the state Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Ministry, according to Subsection 4(2) of the act, effective this month.
He said this also applied to the Malaysia My Second Home programme in Sarawak (S-MM2H ).
"This is a significant achievement for my ministry in further expanding the function of the S-MM2H One-Stop Centre to not only processing applications, but also licensing of S-MM2H agents.
"My ministry has carried out a lab with the S-MM2H panel committee members, which consists of representatives from the Sarawak office of the (federal) Tourism Ministry, state Immigration Department, state Attorney General's Chambers, state Health Department, Sarawak Labour and Immigration Management Unit, Sarawak Security and Enforcement Unit, both under the Sarawak Premier's Department, and police to finalise requirements for the S-MM2H programme and guidelines for licensing applications."
He said a roundtable discussion was held with S-MM2H agents on Sept 5.
"The requirements were approved by the cabinet on Oct 24."
He said since his ministry took over the S-MM2H programme from the Sarawak Immigration Department in 2020, it set up the One-Stop Centre to approve and expedite S-MM2H applications.
He said from 2007 to 2019, only 1,240 applications were approved, while from 2020 to October this year, his ministry's panel committee approved 1,526 applications.
He said S-MM2H participants mainly came from China (408), the United Kingdom (355), Taiwan (265), Hong Kong (260) and the United States (216).
"From January until October this year, 450 applications were approved, with RM90 million in fixed deposits placed in Sarawak banks."
Karim said the S-MM2H programme had been improved based on the federal Tourism Ministry's new MM2H requirements.
He said his ministry had targeted four million tourist arrivals this year, and up to Nov 15, the number had hit 4,088,732.
He said from January to October this year, Sarawak saw 3.98 million tourist arrivals, an increase of 25.03 per cent compared with the same period in 2023.
He said this generated RM10.27 billion, an increase of 27.26 per cent from RM8.07 billion in tourism receipts in 2023.
He said international and national events, conventions, conferences and meetings contributed to this growth.
He said Sarawak's tourism sector was forecasted to reach full recovery by 2025.
He said his ministry aimed to receive five million visitors in 2025, which would generate RM12.73 billion in tourism receipts.