APEC business travel card to include HK, Chile

APEC business travel card to include HK, Chile

PENANG, Malaysia (AFP): The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum agreed yesterday to expand the trial of a regional
business travel card from Australia, South Korea and the
Philippines to Chile and Hong Kong.

"Today was in a sense momentous. We finally concluded the
final exchange of agreements between the five economies for the
expanded trial," said Ed Killesteyn, chairman of the APEC group
in charge of improving the mobility of business people in the
Asia-Pacific region.

Killesteyn, who is also first assistant secretary at the
Australian department of immigration and multicultural affairs,
said Chile and Hong Kong were scheduled to join the APEC business
travel card scheme next month.

He said the second phase of the trial would be "more
sophisticated" as it would incorporate new electronic software
and additional security features.

Launched last year, the APEC card allows accredited business
travelers visa-free travel and faster immigration processing in
special lanes.

Under the agreement reached yesterday, the five APEC members
will be allowed to issue up to 2,000 cards for their nationals,
Killesteyn said. That compares with about 300 cards each for
Australia, South Korea and the Philippines under the first phase
of the trial which began in May last year.

"We have quite a lot of interested observers," the Australian
immigration official said, adding that he was "quite confident"
that other members of APEC would be moving to join the scheme
over the next 12 months.

The other 13 APEC members are Brunei, Canada, China,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New
Guinea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

Russia, Vietnam and Peru are set to join later this year.

Killesteyn said yesterday's meeting also discussed
recommendations by the Manila-based APEC Business Advisory
Council to streamline immigration rules for the temporary
residence of business people from APEC economies.

But he noted that this was a "more complicated" issue as it
involved certain aspects of immigration policy such as benefits
to local economies and protecting local workers.

Under an "action agenda" adopted by APEC leaders in Japan in
1995, members are supposed to enhance business mobility by
exchanging information on immigration regulations while
streamlining the processing of short-term visas and temporary
residence for business visitors.