Govt considers revoking visa-free facility

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