Govt considers revoking visa-free facility

Rendi A. Witular The Jakarta Post Jakarta

The Directorate General of Immigration has proposed the abolition of the visa-free facility currently extended to the nationals of 48 countries, a move which tourism experts said would hurt the already embattled industry.

According to a draft of the proposal seen by The Jakarta Post on Friday, the facility will only be given to nationals of 14 countries, mostly consisting of the ASEAN member countries, while citizens from 38 other countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Taiwan and South Korea would no longer be entitled to the facility starting next year.

ASEAN stands for the Association of South East Asian Nations.

The visa-free facility, first introduced in 1983, was meant to lure more foreign tourists to the country. Under the scheme, foreign tourists visiting the country for a two-month period are not required to possess a visa.

But the immigration office argues that the facility has often been abused by foreign visitors to work in the country illegally or conduct other non tourism-related activities.

Another reason given is the reciprocity issue. Many Indonesian citizens face difficulties in obtaining visas from countries that have been enjoying Indonesia's visa-free facility.

A source at the immigration office said that the privilege should only be given to countries that were willing to provide the same facility for Indonesian citizens.

He added that the plan was currently being discussed with other institutions, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Police.

To plan is actually not a new one. In late 1999, the government was also considering abolishing the facility arguing that it had brought about severe negative consequences for the country, including increased drug smuggling and a growing number of illegal workers.

Another source said that the country's intelligence services had also been demanding that the government abolish the free-visa facility as it had been misused by members of foreign non- governmental organizations visiting the country for political purposes, thus threatening domestic security.

The country's tourism industry deplored the plan to abolish the scheme, arguing it would only serve to further damage a tourism sector struggling to recover from the impact of the late 1990s twin political and economic crises as well as from the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Meity Robot, president of the central board of the Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies Association (ASITA), said that if the plan was realized it would significantly reduce the number of foreign tourists coming to the country, forcing many travel agencies to shut up shop.

She said that the country could lose a huge amount of foreign exchange earnings, pointing out that one tourist on average spent US$1,000 during a 10-day stay here.

Meity suggested that instead of completely revoking the facility, the government could instead reduce the length of the permitted visa-free stay from 60 days to 30 days.

She said that the average length of stay for foreign tourists here was between 10 and 12 days.

Meity said that the association had been informed about the plan, and that Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika had sent a letter a week ago informing the association that the ministry would propose a reduction in the length of stay instead of completely abolishing the scheme.

Indonesia is currently lagging behind in attracting foreign tourists compared to neighboring countries like Malaysia and Thailand, which in 2001 respectively saw some 12.7 million and 10.4 million foreign tourist arrivals.

By comparison, only 5.1 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia, of which 2 million came from the South East Asian countries. Eyebox

Countries to be granted visa free facility in 2003

1. Singapore 2. Malaysia 3. Thailand 4. Philippine 5. Brunei Darussalam 6. Hongkong S.A.R 7. Turkey 8. Tanzania 9. Peru 10. Morocco 11. Malta 12. Guam 13. Fiji 14. Chile

Source: the Directorate General of Immigration of the Ministry of Justice and Human Right