China pushes for bilateral visa-free agreement with Singapore

SINGAPORE: China is working on a bilateral visa-free travel arrangement with Singapore after opening its borders.

Reuters quoted a representative of China’s embassy in Singapore as saying, “It is something that citizens of both countries are eagerly awaiting, and is also a shared concern for the leaders of both countries.”

The Reuters report on May 8 (Monday) said the deal, making a visa-free arrangement between Singapore and China, could lead to an increase in tourists from China.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, China was Singapore’s largest tourism market, with 3.6 billion Chinese visitors bringing in $4.1 billion in 2019 alone. That was more than visitors from any other country spent in Singapore.

The high number of ethnic Chinese, as well as Mandarin-speaking residents, in Singapore, has made it a convenient travel destination for visitors from the mainland.

Although Reuters requested a comment from the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there has been no response.

On Mar 28, 2020, China said it was temporarily suspending entry into the country by foreign nationals who held valid visas or residence permits.

At the same time, the 15-day visa-free facility for Singaporeans travelling to China was also suspended until further notice.

This has resulted in long waiting times and queues at the Chinese visa application centre.

On Saturday, May 6, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Singapore addressed this in an announcement over Facebook.

“Recently, as the summer vacation approaches, the number of visa applications to China has increased significantly, accompanied by some problems in emergency visa application (walk-in) such as long queuing time, which affects the applicant’s personal experience and order on site. In order to solve this problem and respond to the needs of the public in a timely manner, starting from May 8, 2023 (Monday), the Visa Center will make the following arrangements for the handling of emergency visa applications.”

/TISG

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