Taiwan’s foreign ministry has announced the extension of its trial 14-day visa-free entry programme for nationals from Thailand, Brunei, and the Philippines until July next year.
The decision followed a June 11 inter-ministerial meeting convened by the foreign ministry and attended by officials from government agencies overseeing national security, police administration, investigation, immigration, tourism, and economy and trade.
The visa-free treatment for nationals from these three countries will continue for another year from August 1, 2018, through July 31, 2019.
This measure is being continued to attract visitors from Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy partner countries for tourism and business purposes, and to increase people-to-people exchanges.
According to statistics from the Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau, nationals from New Southbound Policy partner countries made a total of 2,284,382 visits to Taiwan in 2017, a significant year-on-year increase of 27.65 per cent over the 1,789,503 visits made in 2016. The country saw its visa-free policy as achieving the expected effect.
