Info-shar­ing to stream­line exit-en­try

New reg­u­la­tions are ex­pected to make travel in coun­try more con­ve­nient for for­eign­ers

China Daily (USA) - - CHINA - By CAO YIN caoyin@chi­nadaily.com.cn

A na­tion­wide plat­form for shar­ing and search­ing exit-en­try in­for­ma­tion is be­ing con­sid­ered in China, ac­cord­ing to the cen­tral govern­ment.

The plat­form aims to strengthen the co­or­di­na­tion of gov­ern­men­tal de­part­ments across the coun­try re­lat­ing to exit-en­try af­fairs and to im­prove ef­fi­ciency, ac­cord­ing to a State Coun­cil re­port.

The re­port was sub­mit­ted to the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee of the Na­tional Peo­ple’s Congress, China’s top leg­isla­tive body, for re­viewover the week­end.

“Our exit-en­try de­part­ments are in­creas­ing in­for­ma­tion­iza­tion, as in­for­ma­tion shar­ing among them is in­suf­fi­cient,” said Huang Ming, vice-min­is­ter of public se­cu­rity.

Cur­rently, res­i­dents have to go to sev­eral dif­fer­ent de­part­ments to sub­mit doc­u­ments if they want to go abroad, “which con­trib­utes to the asym­met­ric in­for­ma­tion shar­ing among exit-en­try au­thor­i­ties”, Huang said.

The coun­try plans to build the plat­form by ask­ing the de­part­ments to join hands in shar­ing their data, he said.

“Mean­while, an exit-en­try in­te­grated data ap­pli­ca­tion plat­form for public se­cu­rity is planned, and we’ll in­te­grate data from au­thor­i­ties cov­er­ing rail­way, civil avi­a­tion, tourism, for­eign af­fairs, mar­itime and for­eign spe­cial­ists, aim­ing to ef­fec­tively solve exit-en­try is­sues,” Huang said.

In ad­di­tion, the re­port stip­u­lates that the coun­try’s ex­i­ten­try ser­vices for for­eign­ers will be im­proved, while a se­ries of reg­u­la­tions, in­clud­ing one re­lated to the per­ma­nent res­i­dence of for­eign­ers, are to be is­sued soon.

“For­eign­ers with per­ma­nent resid e n c e per­mits will be given an e-cer­tifi­cate that can bet­ter serve them when buy­ing tick­ets for t ra in s , flights and ships, and make book­ing ac­com­mo­da­tion or deal­ing with fi­nan­cial in­surance more con­ve­nient,” Huang said.

Ada Jen, aUnited States cit­i­zen and ad­min­is­tra­tor at an in­ter­na­tional school in Bei­jing, said, “I’m glad to know that life will be made more con­ve­nient for Chi­nese green­card hold­ers like me.

“It takes too long to buy a ticket at Bei­jing South Rail­way Sta­tion, and my per­mit could not be used when I wanted to stay at a ho­tel in Guang­dong prov­ince.”

Roe­land Aerts, a mar­ket­ing ex­ec­u­tive from Bel­gium, said that he has never had an un­pleas­ant ex­pe­ri­ence with exit-en­try bu­reaus in China, but added that some pa­per­work pro­cesses could be sim­pli­fied or put on­line.

“Putting pa­per­work pro­cesses on­line would be more prac­ti­cal,” Aerts said.

“When my par­ents come to visit, be­sides pre­par­ing all the

High­lights of the govern­ment re­port be­ing re­viewed by theNPC Stand­ingCom­mit­tee:

So far, China has signed visa-free agree­ments with 127 coun­tries and reached 63 agree­ments on sim­pli­fy­ing pro­ce­dures with 39 coun­tries.

The num­ber of pri­vate pass­ports has reached 120 mil­lion.

The num­ber of des­ti­na­tion coun­tries for Chi­nese trav­el­ers has risen to 153. pa­per­work, they need to go the con­sulate to de­posit the forms, which is about a four-hour drive from their home, which is im­prac­ti­cal.”

The new exit-en­try data plat­form should speed up re­lated af­fairs and im­prove ef­fi­ciency, he said.

In the past three years, exit-en­try vis­its have seen a rapid in­crease. In 2015, there were 520 mil­lion vis­its; in the first six months of this year there were 270 mil­lion.

China, with visa sites in 87 ports, of­fers a 72-hour visa-free tran­sit stay for some for­eign­ers in 15 cities and also pro­vides a 144-hour visa-free pol­icy for some for­eign­ers in cer­tain ar­eas in the coun­try.

Huang Ming, vice-min­is­ter of public se­cu­rity

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