Govt Plans To Abolish Visa For Tourists From China - Tourism And Culture Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 (Bernama) -- The government is looking into the possibility of abolishing visa for tourists from China in a bid to woo more of them to Malaysia. Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Aziz said the move was also aimed to reposition Malaysia's competitiveness in the tourism sector as Thailand and Indonesia had abolished visa for their Chinese tourists. He said a proposal on this matter had been submitted to the Cabinet on May 15, adding that he hoped a decision could be made soon. For the first three months of this year, we only received 350,000 Chinese tourists, whereas Thailand could get two million tourists, he told reporters after launching the US$1.35 billion (RM5 billion) Theme Park, Wholesale City and Outlet Mall (TWO) integrated lifestyle and commercial project by DA Land Sdn Bhd. Malaysia had waived visa application fee of US$8 (RM30) for all tourists from China from Feb 15 until end of this year. A total of 1.4 million tourist arrivals from China were recorded last year, from two million arrivals in 2013. The TWO project, which sits on a 51-acre land in Rawang will have a convention centre, multipurpose hall, premium shopping mall, hotels and the largest indoor theme park in the region. The first phase of the project started last month and would be completed in the next four years, while the whole project is expected to be completed in within eight to 10 years, said DA Land Chief Executive Officer Derek Chew. -- BERNAMA