Taiwanese businesspeople will be able to cut red tape for trips to 10 APEC member countries of after the foreign ministry yesterday announced that it will start issuing APEC Business Travel Cards from May 1.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to issue around 2,000 [APEC] business travel cards during the first year of the program," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a press release yesterday.
"Taipei's participation in the scheme is expected to facilitate economic and trade relations between Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region and to foster bilateral and multilateral ties between Taipei and related member economies," the release stated.
Taiwan is the 11th APEC member among the existing 21 members of the regional grouping that decided to join the Australia-initiated APEC Business Travel Card scheme.
The other 10 APEC members that have joined the program are Australia, Chile, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei and Peru.
"The decision by Chinese Taipei to join is a significant boost for the APEC Card and for businesspeople generally," Philip Ruddock, Australian minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, was quoted as saying last August regarding Taiwan's decision to join the scheme.
The APEC Card looks like a credit card, contains personal identity details and is valid for up to three years for short-term business visits -- with the maximum duration of each stay limited to three months.
The purpose of the scheme is to provide cardholders with streamlined and rapid travel within the APEC region by allowing cardholders to sidestep red tape by passing through special APEC lanes at international airports.
Taiwan joined APEC in 1991 -- together with China and Hong Kong -- under the name of "Chinese Taipei."
RSS