Malaysia is one step closer to US Visa Waiver Program

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Thursday 19 Nov 2015 - 12:01 Makkah mean time-7-2-1437 Pic: BERNAMA.com Kuala Lumpur (IINA) – Malaysia is one step closer to join the United States' Visa Waiver Program (US VWP) after both countries inked the agreement on enhancing cooperation in Preventing and Combating Serious Crime (PCSC), BERNAMA reported. Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi witnessed the signing ceremony between Home Ministry's Secretary-General Alwi Ibrahim and US Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun. Ahmad Zahid said the PCSC agreement is one of the two important documents in addition to the Homeland Security Presidential Directive No. 6 (HSPD-6) Arrangement which is a vital prerequisite for Malaysia's participation into the US VWP. "The agreement is very important because with this HSPD-6 and PCSC fully signed, the two conditions set in the US check list are met," he told reporters after the signing ceremony here on Thursday. "The follow-up action that we do is to ensure that all information we share is not imbalanced or favorable to a certain party only," he added. Ahmad Zahid said the HSPD-6 allows for the exchange of biographic information of known and suspected terrorist while the PCSC focus on the cooperation in detection, prevention and investigation of serious crime more effectively. He said Malaysia was also in the process of meeting other related requirements concerning the admission to the US VWP. The US VWP enables Malaysians to travel to the US without visa for 90 days for tourism and business purposes. AB/IINA