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Malaysia plans e-visas to attract tourists

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI DEC. 10. The Malaysian Government will issue e-visas to attract overseas tourists in about four months, said the visiting Malaysian Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Abdul Kadir Bin Haji Sheikh Fadzir, today.

Addressing a press conference here, he said as part of the first phase, collection centres would be set up in all important cities and towns in India. In the second phase, the facility would be made available on the web site and the visas processed and issued through the Internet.

The new facility would be in addition to the existing visa offices in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Pointing out that tourist arrivals from India had grown from 40,000 in 1999 to 1,83,000 in 2002, the Minister said the Malaysian Government recently announced a scheme of `visa on arrival' if combined with a trip to either Singapore or Thailand. Appealing to the Indian Government to allow more flights between India and Kuala Lumpur, he said that out of the 2.5 million people of Indian origin in Kuala Lumpur, 80 per cent came from Tamil Nadu.

On the imposition of death sentence on eight persons from Tamil Nadu, the Minister said he was not aware of it.

The Assistant High Commissioner of Malaysia in Chennai, Raja Ahmed, said they received an official-level confirmation about their remand and reports on the death sentence were not true.

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