Taiwan’s passport was ranked 32nd on a list of the world’s most powerful passports, offering its holders visa-free access to 145 destinations, according to the Henley Passport Index for the first quarter of the year, released on Tuesday.
Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, Taiwan’s ranking rose two spots in the latest survey by British consulting firm Henley & Partners.
The index compares the visa-free access of 199 passports to 227 travel destinations.
Photo: Su Chin-fong, Taipei Times
The Henley Passport Index shows that holders of Japanese and Singaporean passports remain at the top of the list with access to 192 destinations without a visa, followed by Germany and South Korea with 190 locations.
Third on the index is Finland, a position it shares with Italy, Luxembourg and Spain with 189 destinations, while Austria, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden are at fourth with 188 destinations.
Ireland and Portugal are both fifth, followed by the US and the UK at sixth place.
China placed 64th with visa-free access to 80 countries, while its Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions placed 18th and 33rd respectively, the survey showed.
At the bottom of the index is Afghanistan, which placed 111th with only 26 locations offering visa-free travel to its passport holders.
Updated quarterly, the Henley Passport Index is compiled using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is seeking to join an Indo-Pacific economic framework being planned by the US, a senior official said. The government is paying close attention to the regional economic pact being touted by US President Joe Biden, although too few details have emerged from Washington for Taipei to make specific plans, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The US is expected to launch the Indo-Pacific economic framework next month after negotiations with Australia, India and Japan, the official said. The economic initiative is to tackle trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology, supply-chain resiliency and
‘NEW YEAR GIFT’: While the MAC called the song propaganda, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said that it addressed the homesickness of ‘Taiwanese compatriots’ A pro-unification pop song aired on Chinese television earlier this month would only further sour Taiwanese sentiment toward China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Wednesday. The music video for We Sing the Same Song (我們同唱一首歌), which aired on China Central Television, features Chinese artists performing alongside Taiwanese singers Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Chen Li-nong (陳立農). The lyrics were reportedly written by Taiwanese lyricist Vincent Fang (方文山), known for his collaborations with Jay Chou (周杰倫), to music composed by a Chinese musician. Sung in Chinese and Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), the song is about three Taiwanese siblings who
RULES TIGHTENED: Passengers arriving from Sydney and Los Angeles tested positive for COVID-19, while passengers arriving from Seattle all tested negative Seventeen of the 217 passengers who arrived on long-haul at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday morning tested positive for COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the positivity rate was higher than expected. Yesterday was the first day that the government enforced stricter health guidelines for the testing of passengers arriving on long-haul flights. They must undergo a polymerase chain reaction test immediately after arriving at the nation’s international airports. Those who test positive are sent directly to hospitals to avoid spreading the virus to people working in and around the airports and at quarantine hotels. Victor Wang (王必勝),
SEPARATE CASE? A woman tested positive when she went with her daughter to be tested, because her daughter had taken the same bus to school as a steakhouse worker The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 10 local COVID-19 cases, six of whom had visited a steakhouse in Taoyuan where an infection cluster has been reported. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that of the 10 local infections, one case — No. 17,928 — is a Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport disease prevention staffer who works in the area where inbound travelers collect their saliva for a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and sometimes at the fever screening station. The staffer had tested negative in a PCR test on Jan. 9 and
RSS