PUTRAJAYA, April 22 — Tourism, Art and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi says the distribution of half of the tourism tax revenue to state governments is his biggest achievement since he took charge of the ministry last May.
He said the move is to enable state government to receive additional revenue, which was estimated to amount to RM50 million.
“At least (there are) some funds for the states to utilise more towards their development,” he told Malay Mail after a media session at his office, here today.
Mohamaddin said the one main goal he has to achieve by mid-term is to bring in more tourists into the country, and finding solutions to visa problems to be able to generate more income for Malaysia.
“It’s always in my mind, getting more tourist to come in.
“On top of that if there is any visa problems for the tourists, (I would like) to settle that. (This is) to make it easier for tourists to come into our country so that we can get more money for the country,” said Mohamaddin.
The Silam MP said the ministry has many programmes that needs to be implemented to better the ministry, which are divided into three separate segments.
“For tourism, we have done our part in getting the tourists to come into this country. Sometimes when we go overseas to promote Malaysia, we would have to put up our cultural show.
“As for arts, we have a lot of that around the country, it is just a matter of how to work together with them and get a better understanding from them,” he said.
When asked to rank his performance the past year, Mohamaddin said he leaves it to the people to judge his accomplishments.
“But so far I feel quite satisfied with what we have achieved, what we got, what we have done for the government of Malaysia, and for the people of Malaysia through this ministry,” he said.
Mohamaddin said some of the other achievements of his ministry since the Pakatan Harapan government took over include Malaysia maintaining its ranking as the best tourist destination in 2018 among 10 other selected countries.
