Thais And Cambodians To Enjoy Visa Free Border Travel From Dec 18, 2010

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Cambodia to waive visa for Thais

By Marisa Chimprabha

Phnom Penh

Thai and Cambodian people by next month will enjoy free across-border travelling after both countries sign free-visa agreement in Cambodia.

Thai and Cambodian foreign ministers; Kasit Piromya and Hor Nam Hong will sign the agreement at the presence of their prime ministers; Abhisit Vejjiva and Hun Sen on Wednesday.

The signing took place during a summit of Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmecs) in Pnom Penh.

Acmecs is a cooperation framework among Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam to optimize the benefits from member countries' diverse and complimentary economic strengths. The cooperation contributes to the attainment of the Asean Community.

The visa-free agreement, to be effective around December 18, allow Thais to stay in Cambodia without a visa for 14 days and vice versa. If one wishes to stay longer than the allowed period, he has to apply for a visa.

On common practise, a tourist visa allow a visitor to stay 30 days.

Kasit said the signing will be a starting of the cooperation under Acmecs Single Visa Scheme for Five Countries, One Destination Campaign.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit told reporters that the agreement will facilitate the travelling between people of both countries.

Asked to comment on whether human-smuggling activities and cross-border crimes would exploit the visa-free agreement, Kasit said that both countries' crime busting agencies are needed to cooperate to prevent the crimes and their activities.

The first ACMECS Summit was held on 12 November 2003 in Bagan, Myanmar. The outcome of the meeting, the Bagan Declaration, established the ACMECS framework and laid the foundations for the Plan of Action covering five sectors of cooperation, namely, trade and investment facilitation, agricultural and industrial cooperation, transport linkages, tourism cooperation and human resource development. Later at the ACMECS Ministerial Meeting in August 2005, public health was established as the sixth sector of ACMECS cooperation.

Thailand hosted the second ACMECS Summit in Bangkok on 3 November 2005 to review progress on its implementation as well as to set its future course. ACMECS Leaders agreed on the Second ACMECS Summit Declaration to forge even closer cooperation in a forward-looking manner in order to meet the future needs of the sub-region. They also underscored the need for closer cooperation in dealing with trans-border diseases, especially Avian Influenza, by signing the Declaration on Partnership in Combating Avian Influenza and Other Infectious Diseases. In this regard, Thailand announced to allocate 2.5 million US dollar as a seed fund to support activities under the Declaration.

Later in January 2007, the ACMECS Leaders' Mid term Review Informal Meeting was held in Cebu, as a sideline meeting to the Asean Summit. Leaders agreed to adopted the ACMECS Mid term Plan of Action

In 2008, the Third ACMECS Summit was held in Vietnam, the ACMECS Leaders' Declaration was issued which demonstrates the intention of leaders to continue their support on ACMECS cooperation in Trade and Investment; Agriculture; Industry and Energy; Transport Linkages; Tourism; Human Resources Development and Public Health, as well as expressed their support for the establishment of Environment Cooperation as a new area of cooperation.

On 6 October 2009 Thailand hosted the ACMECS Senior Officials' Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

-- The Nation 2010-11-16

[phuketrichard]

why do they always say that a Cambodia gets 30 days with a visa to stay in Thailand? Each time my Cambodian GF has visited me this past year she has always gotten 60 days same as everyone eles.