Relaxed travel rules help boost business and people-to-people exchanges

For Ferri Limputra, China has become a virtual home away from home.

- By PRIME SARMIENTO and LEONARDUS JEGHO

That's because Limputra, chief executive of Pura Mayungan, a company in Jakarta that makes electrical components, regularly travels to the country for both business and leisure.

So he has welcomed news that China has introduced a five-year multiple-entry visa for business executives who are nationals of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as of Timor-Leste, which has ASEAN observer status.

"I am so happy with this new visa policy," Limputra said, noting that this will reduce paperwork and make it more convenient for him to travel to China.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, said the programme offers five-year multiple-entry visas to eligible applicants visiting China for business. It allows them, their spouses and their children stays of up to 180 days.

He said this will further facilitate cross-border travel in the region after visa-free travel was made available to nationals of China bound for Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia and for nationals of those countries bound for China, as well as the introduction of China's Lancang-Mekong visas programme for Mekong River countries.