To further improve Malaysia's investment environment and promote technology transfer and the inflow of foreign skills into Malaysia, the Government has further liberalised the policy on the employment of expatriate personnel.

For Malaysian-owned manufacturing companies, automatic approval for the employment of expatriates for technical posts, including R & D posts, will be given as requested.

An expatriate personnel who is transferred from one post to another within the same company will be required to obtain a new employment pass. His original employment pass will be amended to reflect the change in post. A new expatriate personnel replacing another must also obtain a fresh employment pass.

All employment passes are valid for the period approved for the post.

• The validity of the expatriate's passport is less than 5 years
• The expatriate's employment contract is less than 5 years
• The employer requires the services of the expatriate for less than 5 years

Holders of employment passes will be issued with a multiple entry visa valid for the duration of the employment pass.

Effective from 21 October 2004, all applications for expatriate posts from new and existing companies in the manufacturing and related services sectors should be submitted to MIDA via the PKFZ OSA Department.