VIENTIANE (Laotian Times): Hong Kong has announced relaxed visa rules for nationals of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, making it easier for them to apply for multiple-entry visas for travel or business. Chief Executive John Lee unveiled this change during his policy address to the Legislative Council this week.
This new policy follows a similar extension granted to Vietnamese nationals last year and aims to strengthen ties with Asean countries, enhancing business and travel exchanges.
Additionally, Lee introduced a fast-track visa processing system for group visitors from Asean nations, including Laos. This system simplifies the application process for tourists and business travelers working through local travel agents.
Invited participants from Asean countries involved in business and development will also benefit from self-service immigration clearance, eliminating the need to submit arrival or departure cards. This change speeds up immigration processing and makes travel more convenient.
To attract more visitors from Asean and the Middle East, Hong Kong will implement additional tourism-support measures. These include providing information in Arabic at airports and identifying halal food options in restaurants, ensuring a welcoming experience for visitors from these regions.
Overall, this new visa policy aims to strengthen Hong Kong’s economic and cultural ties with Asean countries, focusing on tourism, trade, and development cooperation.
Lee said the new moves were to foster closer people-to-people ties with Asean countries. Under a fast-track arrangement, the HKSAR government will expedite the processing of visa applications from group visitors of Asean countries submitted via local travel agents.
"In addition, we will provide self-service immigration clearance for invited persons participating in business, development and related activities from the 10 Asean countries, and provide a one-stop handling of their applications for self-service immigration clearance and visa through a dedicated desk," Lee said, adding that effective immediately, the requirement for visitors to furnish an arrival or departure card is cancelled, facilitating a faster and more convenient immigration clearance.
Lee said to develop visitor sources from the Middle East and Asean, the HKSAR government will actively encourage various sectors of the community to enhance tourism-support measures for creating a friendly environment for visitors. They include providing information at the airport in Arabic and compiling a list of restaurants offering halal food.
Asean (the Association of South-East Asian Nations) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. - Bernama-Xinhua
