Vietnam proposes visa waivers for more nationalities

In a bid to boost tourism, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has recommended that agencies waive visa requirements for more nationalities and urged them to streamline inefficient visa procedures. In a resolution last week, Prime Minister Dung asked the ministries of public security, tourism, and foreign affairs to work with agencies to come up with a list of visa waiver countries.

“We believe there are very strong arguments to broadening the list of visa waiver countries to include North America, Europe (to include UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy) and Australia and New Zealand,” Kenneth Atkinson, chairman of the Vietnam Business Forum’s Tourism Working Group, told Thanh Nien News.

Currently, citizens of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are entitled to travel visa-free to Vietnam, and the country also waives visa for single-entry visits of up to 15 days for Danish, Finnish, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, South Korean, and Swedish nationals.

Foreign tourist arrivals to Vietnam were up 5.4 percent in the first 11 months of this year, with a total of 7.2 million foreign tourists. China’s decision to put an oil rig in Vietnamese waters in May sparked violent riots in the country and impacted this upward trend, however, according to the Vietnam Business Forum.

 

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