Malaysia issued over 730,000 e-visas from May 2017

Malaysia had issued up to 734,364 electronic visas (e-visas) until 5 March after they were introduced for 10 nations on 1 May 2017, the Dewan Rakyat (the lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia) was told on 6 March.

Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Deputy Prime Minister, said that e-visa allowed nationals of these countries to apply for it to arrive in Malaysia without them needing to visit Malaysian missions in their countries.

Ahmad Zahid, also the Home Minister of this Southeast Asian country, said Malaysia had an alliance with Interpol and Aseanapol to oversee the use of these e-visas.

He was quoted by Bernama (the Malaysian official news agency) as saying that they would also introduce the APSS (Advance Passenger Screening System) which will make control tougher and see to it that the security aspects terms would not be exploited.

It was a response by Zahid to a question of Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah on the initiative of Malaysia to make easier the visa application to encourage more tourists to the country, particularly from India and China, to coincide with Visit Malaysia Year 2020.

While replying to a question posed by Fong Kui Lun on whether the government was proposing plans to waive visas for Chinese tourists, Zahid said that the Chinese government had, in fact, requested its citizens to be registered in the entry system into Malaysia.

He said that they were cooperating with the Chinese government because tourists from their country have to be aware their visit visas to Malaysia are valid for 15 days. Following that, they have to return to China before their visa period expires. Zahid stated that the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia was taking positive steps in 2018 with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Malaysia to attract a minimum of three million tourists from China to their country.

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