New Delhi: Claiming to be a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-free country, Malaysian government on May 15 said it was ready to invest in tourism packages of Indian Airlines (IA) to attract more tourists who would soon get visas on arrival in the South East Asian nation.

"We have decided to grant visas-on-arrival to those Indian tourists who have visas to Thailand and Singapore. The decision has been taken and will soon be implemented," Malaysian Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir bin Haji Sheikh Fadzir told reporters in New Delhi.

He said the Malaysian Tourism Board has also decided to "put some money to promote special packages" being offered by Indian Airlines and added that the carrier has also been asked to provide Indian packages for Malaysian tourists.

Fadzir, who had a meeting with IA CMD Sunil Arora, also sought additional flights by Indian carriers to Malaysia. "For the Indian carriers, we have an open sky policy", he said, adding Kuala Lumpur had already decided to exempt these airlines from paying landing and parking charges for five years.

"No country in the world has done such a crazy thing before", he quipped to state that all steps were being taken to encourage Indian tourists to visit Malaysia.

Though the Indian government has recently allowed an additional eight extra frequencies to Malaysian Airline System (MAS), "it is still very less", he said.

PTI