Malaysia woos tourists from China, India

Chinese and Indian nationals can now enter Malaysia on a multiple-entry, one-year visa instead of single-entry, three-week visas as part of efforts to increase the number of tourists to the country, the tourism minister said.

"This will also increase the number of repeat tourists," Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama, late on Friday.

The Cabinet approved the new arrangement on Wednesday, the minister told reporters in northern Perak state.

The move is an attempt to address the problems faced by Chinese and Indian tourists visiting Malaysia who want to make side-trips to neighbouring Singapore and Thailand. The single-entry visa had prohibited them from re-entering Malaysia.

Bernama said the issuance of multiple-entry visas was expected to be extended to tourists from other countries by the end of this year, in conjunction with the "Visit Malaysia Year 2007" campaign.

The government has targeted arrivals of at least 20 million people in 2007, earning the country about $10 billion.