RI OFFERS VISA-FREE FACILITY TO 45 COUNTRIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 17 (Antara) - Going all out to promote tourism and to meet its target to receive 10 million foreign tourists this year, Indonesia has offered visa-free facilities to 45 countries.          While the visa-free facility was earlier open to only 15 countries, the government is currently working on plans to extend the facility to 30 more countries in the American, European, Asian, and African continents.          Thus, the number of countries whose citizens will enjoy visa-free visits to Indonesia will total 45.          The Indonesian Government wants to expand the scope of its visa-free policy in order to promote the tourism sector, Coordinating Minister for Economics Sofyan Djalil said Friday.          "We already have a visa-free policy for the citizens of fifteen countries. We will soon add four more countries to the list: China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia," he added.          According to Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya, the four countries were earlier proposed to be added on the list.          However, the number was later increased to 30 countries, taking the total number of beneficiaries of the policy to 45, including the 15 existing free visa recipients.          "We believe this facility will benefit us by attracting more foreign tourists. The easy way to increase tourist visits is to provide free visas," the Tourism Minister emphasized.          "There are 15 countries that are already enjoying the free-visa facility. With the additional 30 countries, we will be providing the facility to 45 nations," asserted the Tourism Minister.          Indonesia has been providing free visas for citizens from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Hong Kong Special Administration Region (Hong Kong SAR), Macau Special Administration Region (Macau SAR), Chile, Morocco, Peru, Vietnam, Ecuador, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.          Of the 30 countries, the minister mentioned 29, namely China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Check, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and South Africa.          Minister Yahya said that the government will need one week to conclude agreements on the visa-free policies with those countries.          However, the agreement will become effective in only a month after it is signed.          "In short, the visa-free policy will become applicable next month," noted the Tourism Minister.          With this policy, Indonesia expects to see an increase in the number of tourist arrivals. "Through the visa-free policy, we hope to increase tourist visits to the country to 85 percent," Chief Economic Minister Sofjan Djalil added.          The expansion of the visa-free policy is one of the four economic policies that will be implemented shortly. The government is working out four economic policy packages to improve the country's economic performance.          Besides targeting to increase foreign tourist arrivals to 10 million in 2015, the policy also aims to boost the country's foreign exchange reserves as part of an endeavor to improve the performance of the country's balance of services.          "This can increase revenues by 15 percent as compared to the previous income. With the free-visa policy, additional foreign tourist arrivals can reach 750 thousand, which can bring an additional income of about US$1 billion," Minister Arief remarked.          The Ministry of Tourism has set a target to receive 10 million foreign tourists in 2015 with the sector's foreign exchange contribution expecting to reach US$12.05 billion, up by about 7-8 percent from that in 2014.          Last year's foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia reached 9.3 million contributing US$10.69 billion in foreign exchange to the state.          "We hope the visa-free policy can increase foreign tourist arrivals in the country. We will also provide good services; we do not want tourists to worry about obtaining a visa first," Minister Yahya added.          Therefore, with the policy, the minister hopes Indonesia will attract additional one million visitors.     After all, the number of last year's foreign tourist arrivals was 9.3 million, which was relatively smaller than that of Malaysia, which recorded 27 million arrivals, and of Thailand, which recorded 26 million arrivals.          He pointed out that the visa-free policy is part of the government's economic policy package aimed at improving the trade balance.     The current transaction deficit is an internal problem that the government needs to tackle as it also has a negative impact on the rupiah.          This necessitates the government to initiate efforts to preserve its economic fundamentals in the face of global economic pressures.          Therefore, he stressed, the tourism sector is also expected to contribute to improving the country's transaction deficit and rupiah fluctuation.          Besides introducing a new policy for attracting tourists, the government has also been preparing supporting infrastructure facilities.          "We have calculated that if an increase by 50 percent happens for instance in tourist arrivals, our capacity, including flight capacity, will be more than adequate," the minister observed.          In the meantime, tourism observer Dewa Nyoman Putra noted that amid the discourse of the visa-free facility, Bali has recorded an increase in the number of tourist arrivals from China, South Korea, and Japan.          Bali is Indonesia's most popular tourist resort province. "Since early this year, there has been an upward trend in the number of tourist arrivals in Bali from these three countries," Putra stated on Monday.          Hotels in tourist destinations in Bali are predominantly occupied by tourists from the Pacific region. The number of tourists from Japan has also seen a growth following the plan to implement the visa-free policy, he affirmed.          Tourism services in Bali recorded a 30 percent rise in foreign tourist arrivals from Japan and China during January-February this year. The number of tourists from South Korea rose by 17 percent.          Chinese tourist arrivals in Bali during January-February increased to 145,749, up by 33.71 percent from the 109,003 recorded in the same period last year. This accounted for 22.87 percent of the total 637,217 foreign tourist arrivals during the same period.          Moreover, the number of tourists from Japan also surged by 32.71 percent, from 30,680 the previous year to 40,596, while those from South Korea rose 17.42 percent to 28,528 tourists.***1*** (T.A014/INE/B003) EDITED BY INE (T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 17-03-2015 19:16