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SINGAPORE: China has rolled out a special multiple-entry “ASEAN visa” for business personnel from the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and ASEAN observer Timor-Leste, its foreign ministry announced on Tuesday (Jun 3).
The ASEAN member states are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Eligible travellers from the 11 Southeast Asian countries visiting China on business - along with their spouses and children - will be offered the “ASEAN visa”.
This visa allows multiple entries within five years, with each stay lasting up to 180 days.
With frequent visits between the people of China and Southeast Asian countries, the new scheme aims to “further facilitate cross-border travel in the region”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said during a routine press conference.
The new “ASEAN visa” scheme comes on top of existing visa-free agreements that China has with countries in the region including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
Singaporeans and Chinese citizens currently enjoy mutual visa-free travel arrangements for up to 30 days, under an agreement that took effect in February last year.
Travellers from Malaysia and Thailand also enjoy similar visa-free travel arrangements with China.
The “Lancang-Mekong visa” scheme, launched in November 2024, offers business travellers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam five-year multiple-entry visas with a maximum stay of 180 days.
To attract more global tourists, China has ramped up visa-free travel arrangements with multiple countries.
On Jun 1, China began implementing a trial policy granting unilateral visa-free entry to citizens of Latin American countries including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.
Beijing has also recently rolled out visa-free access to all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
In the first quarter of this year, China received over 9 million foreign visitors, an increase of more than 40 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to Lin.
“The growing list of nations granted visa-free entry into the country reflects China’s strong commitment to advancing high-level opening up, while the continuous optimisation of measures to facilitate cross-border personnel exchanges underscores China’s concrete efforts to help build an open world economy,” Lin said.
“China will continue to improve entry policies and add more countries to the visa-free list, to allow more foreign friends to visit China to experience our excellent and diverse products and services.”
