Lawmakers push for single Asean visa Two Mindanao congressmen are pushing for a single-visa policy among the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and his brother Maximo, who represents party-list group Abante Mindanao, have authored Resolution 1313, which urges the Department of Foreign Affairs to work for a single visa within ASEAN. “The proposed visa scheme, which would be similar to Europe’s unified Schengen visa system, will allow non-ASEAN nationals to enter the 10 member-states of the ASEAN using a single visa, thus saving them time and resources in securing such travel document and in going from one country to another within the region,” the two said. They said this would be in preparation for the establishment of the ASEAN community next year. They said it would be beneficial for member-states, especially the Philippines, to have a single visa, as this would boost tourism. They noted the statements made by Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. in a recent congressional hearing that “we are a country that is away from the Asian ‘land mass’ and so everybody else goes by train or by other forms of transportation across the other ASEAN nations.” “So when you have a single visa, the tendency for tourists, for example, is to say, I’m in Thailand but my visa is good for 10 countries, so I might as well go through all the 10,” they quoted Jimenez as saying. Jimenez, however, admitted that it might take a while before this scheme could be realized because “there will be a lot of systems to be involved.” “The single-visa scheme means that the Philippines will respect the visa issued by other countries, say Singapore or Malaysia. That’s easy for us to say. But getting the other countries to accept the Philippine visa would mean that they acknowledge that we have good systems at par with theirs. And it is clear that not all countries are currently prepared to do that,” he said. Citing the ASEAN Tourism Plan 2011-2015, the Rodriguez brothers said a single tourist visa could substantially benefit travel facilitation in the region. At the same time, the plan warns that the “establishment of such a visa scheme will not likely occur in the next five years due to barriers of technology, political issues, concerns of sovereignty and security and the different visa systems in the member-states,” they said. “The Department of Foreign Affairs should seriously consider this scheme and engage the other ASEAN members into discussion on how to make this a reality and how to ensure that despite having a single visa, the security of all countries is protected and their sovereignty is respected,” they said. https://ph.news.yahoo/lawmakers-push-single-asean-visa-000000771.html Nero Sa Ngalan Ng Gobyerno
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 20:49:35 +0000
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