Permanent residents of Brunei with a Certificate of Identity (CI) document can visit Taiwan for up to 30 days without having to apply for a visa starting December 1.

The new initiative was announced by Jason CH Wan, the official representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Brunei Darussalam during a press conference yesterday.

Jason CH Wan has been working to push for the visa waiver status for Brunei's permanent residents during the past months.

"Brunei permanent residents who wish to travel to Taiwan are advised to possess a Certificate of Identity with a validity period of more than six months upon arrival," he said.

In August this year, Taiwan has already granted visa waiver status to Brunei citizen passport holders to travel to Taiwan for tourism, business or attend conferences as well as trade fairs and others.

However, Bruneians who intend to stay over 30 days for employment, studies, attending courses or reside with their family, will need to apply for the appropriate visa at TECO in Gadong.

Statistics have shown that since Taiwan relaxed its visa requirements for Bruneian citizens on August 1, the numbers of Bruneian tourists entering Taiwan in the past three months have amounted to 345 (from August to October), 288 of which have used the visa waiver to enter Taiwan.

Jason CH Wan expects the continued growth of the number of Brunei tourists heading to Taiwan with the introduction of the visa waiver for permanent residents of Brunei.

He added that Taiwan has many attractions for Brunei tourists, such as the Halal restaurants, scenery of Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Kenting, as well as Taipei 101's modern architecture.

He noted that since 2011, Taiwan has also relaxed visa requirements for Malaysia and the number of Taiwanese tourists visiting Malaysia has increased yearly to around 500,000 in 2015.

Following the initiative of the Taiwan Government, TECO hopes that Brunei will also grant Taiwanese citizens visa waiver status to further boost cooperation in various fields including the increase of investment and local tourism-related industries in the country.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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