Govt eases foreign business travellers’ entry with BTC

by TMR / pic by BERNAMA

THE government has introduced Business Travellers Centre (BTC) at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to facilitate the entry of foreign business travellers into the country.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali (picture) said the government is committed to easing business operations for both local and foreign businesses alike despite the Covid-19 challenges.

“Malaysia has pro-business and pragmatic policies that support the investment climate in the country. Our supportive business ecosystem is in fact a catalyst to attract investors not only to conduct new business activities but to expand and diversify their existing operations here.

“The BTC is reflective of our responsiveness to the current situation and in finding progressive solutions to ensure we can achieve a balance in protecting lives and livelihoods,” he said during the launch of the BTC yesterday.

The BTC is one of the key components of the One Stop Centre (OSC) initiative by the government to ease the movement of business travellers — from entry to exit point. The centre assumes a vital role in ensuring that Malaysia remains an attractive investment destination for foreign businesses.

It provides a seamless support system for short-term business travellers by providing fast-track services such as taking the RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) swab test at a dedicated Covid-19 lab within the BTC, with results can be produced within three hours.

Subsequently after being declared healthy, business travellers will proceed to the immigration green lane and the government will appoint a liaison officer for the business travellers with a specific business itinerary.

Short-term business travellers are business travellers who do not hold any dedicated entry passes and intend to stay in the country for 14 days or less, subject to the approval of the OSC committee and a strict set of standard operating procedures.

To date, the OSC committee has approved 93 applications for short-term business travellers. The short-term business travellers whose applications have been approved are from investing companies with total investments valued at RM15 billion.

Read our previous report here