Vietnam tourist visa on arrival

A statue of the Goddess of Mercy Guan Yin in NanShan the Center of the Buddhism, Hainan. Kapitonov Ilia/Shutterstock From the beginning of May, residents of 59 countries worldwide — including the U.S. — will be granted access to the Chinese island of Hainan without a visa. The motivation behind this is to boost the island's tourism industry, and to render it "China’s Hawaii." Resorts, airlines and property developers are expected to take advantage of this liberalization and make a profit on the incoming surge of tourists. Starting May 1, passport holders from the UK, the US, Canada and scores of other European and Asian countries will be allowed to enter Hainan for stays of up to 30 days, according to an announcement Wednesday by the State Immigration Authority. Absent from the list are African countries, countries on the Indian subcontinent, as well as three members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean): Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. … [Read more...] about Americans can now visit the tropical island of Hainan — known as ‘China’s Hawaii’ — without a visa

The Vietnamese government has approved a two-year extension of the pilot e-visa issuance programme for foreigners visiting the country. The policy, launched on February 1 last year, benefitting travellers from 40 countries, including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, the US,  Germany, and Sweden, was scheduled to expire next February. Applicants can get a 30-day, single-entry e-visa for a tourist or business trip by paying a 25 USD application fee online. Visitors with e-visas can enter the country at any of Vietnam’s eight international airports. They can also arrive by land at 13 international border gates and by sea at seven ports around the country. In the first eight months of this year more than 241,000 foreign tourists entered the country with e-visas. The country Received 12.9 million foreign arrivals last year./.-VNA … [Read more...] about E-visa scheme to be extended by two years

Gov’t requests to keep eye on price, market situation in year-end According to the request, the State Bank of Vietnam must keep close watch on monetary and financial markets in the country and in the world. Moreover, the bank must monitor monetary policies flexibly with market development aiming to stabilize macro economy and control inflation. Additionally, it must liaise with the ministries of Planning and Investment, Finance, Industry and Trade in running macroeconomic policies. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade focused to re-structure industry sector by applying technologies and increasing value as well as put forward measures to reduce impacts of the US- China trade war. Besides, the Ministry must speed up important industrial production projects. The Ministry of Public Security was assigned to detect and prevent activities to sabotage the country as well as adopt preventative measures against loan shark. The Ministry of Information and Communications should … [Read more...] about Government News 9/10

Leading the NewsKenyaOn March 16th, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga filed a petition in Kenya’s Supreme Court challenging the results of the recent presidential election. According to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Uhuru Kenyatta won the election with 50.07% of the vote – just enough to avoid a runoff with Prime Minister Odinga. Many member of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) who supported Prime Minister Odinga’s candidacy rallied at the Supreme Court gates to support the petition. Additional information on Prime Minister Odinga’s petition to challenge the election results can be found here. On March 18th, the International Criminal Court (ICC) heard from lawyers of President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta regarding charges of crimes following the 2007 election. Charges in connection to the crimes against Francis Muthaura, a civil servant, were recently dropped by the prosecutor when a witness recanted … [Read more...] about Africa Legal Update – March 21, 2013