The Ministry of the Interior yesterday announced a new measure to simplify the entry process for Hong Kong and Macau residents visiting Taiwan. The measure will take effect from tomorrow.
To attract more tourists from Hong Kong and Macau, the immigration bureau will give 14-day visas on arrival to residents from the two territories who have visited Taiwan under the existing system.
The new measure simplifies the entry process. Currently, Taiwan's representative office in Hong Kong sends visa applications to Taipei for processing, which takes two weeks.
According to Chinese language media, the Hong Kong government has welcomed the new measure.
Explaining why applicants have to have visited Taiwan at least once, director of the Executive Office under the Bureau of Immigration, Ho Jung-Chun(何榮村), explained that national security is the main reason for the requirement.
"To avoid having inappropriate tourists visit Taiwan, the two territories' residents are required to be interviewed when they first apply for a Taiwan visa.
"Besides promoting tourism, we need to defend Taiwan's national security, because many applicants could be from China," Ho said.
Under the new measure, Hong Kong and Macau residents who are employees of China's government, military offices and communist party, will be deemed a "danger national security or social stability," and will not be eligible.
Criminals and people who have previously entered Taiwan illegally, overstayed their visas in Taiwan, or engaged in activities incompatible with the stated reasons for their previous visit to Taiwan, will also be ineligible.
The Bureau of Immigration and the Tourism Bureau began preparing for the new measure in June and hopes to attract more tourists from Hong Kong and Macau.
An official from the Tourism Bureau's international division, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the bureau wants to attract tourists from all over the world.
The bureau is planning to launch a series of campaigns to promote Taiwan tourism in the two territories after the new measure comes into effect.
According to the Tourism Bur-eau, 361,308 residents of Hong Kong and Macau visited Taiwan last year, constituting only 20 percent of Asian tourists visiting the island.
Besides Hong Kong and Macau, residents from a number of countries, including the US and Japan, have been allowed to visit Taiwan for 14 days without a visa for years. Taiwan had 359,500 visitors from the US and 916,300 from Japan last year.
Last week, to promote tourism, the Hong Kong government announced that it will offer electronic visas to visitors from Taiwan, starting next year.
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