#mm2h programme

New Post has been published on http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2014/08/28/chinese-top-mm2h-participation/

Chinese top MM2H participation

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28:

The Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, instituted since 2002, has largely drawn rich Asians in the past 12 years to settle down here.

Statistics till April this year show that over two-thirds of the total 25,506 applications approved for MM2H status are made up of Asians.

Those from China alone make up more than a fifth (22.2%) or 5,659 applicants – showing that Malaysia remains an attractive destination for the Chinese, despite the lure of other nations like Australia, Canada and Singapore.

Chinese arrivals have picked up significantly since 2012 and 734 applications were approved in the first four months of this year alone.

Japanese came in second with 3,346 applications (13.1%) approved in total and 162 up to April this year.

The biggest surprise is third-ranked Bangladesh-origin applications approved – with 2,874 in total (11.3%) since 2002 and 119 up to April.

Approved applications from UK and Northern Ireland came in fourth with 2,119 in total (8.3%) and 43 in the first four months of this year.

Iranians made up 1.297 of the total (5.1%) since 2002, followed by Singaporeans (1,061 or 4.2%) and Taiwanese (997 or 3.9%).

Rounding off the top 10 approved applications since 2002, by nationalities, are those from Pakistan (885 or 3.5%), South Korean (841 or 3.3%) and India (749 or 2.9%).

Those from other countries amounted to 5,678 or 22.3% of all applications approved since 2002. Total applications approved have picked up significantly since 2011, with 1.401 in the first four months of this year.