Council Urges Businessmen To Apply For Apec Business Travel Cards

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 (Bernama) -- Apec Business Advisory Council (ABAC) has urged Malaysian corporates to apply and reap the benefits of the Apec Business Travel Card (ABTC) for their convenience of doing business abroad. ABAC Malaysia Lead Member, Azman Hashim, said the ABTC offered tremendous advantages to businessmen, including hassle-free queing at airports, as there would be a special lane for ABTC cardholders. He said there would also be no hassle in applying for visas in 19 Apec country members, except the US and Canada, as the ABTC cardholders required no visas to enter those countries. "The ABTC also helps Apec governments to enhance integrity and security at their borders by providing benefits to immigration to increase the number of low-risk travellers since each applicant is vetted against a 'watch list' of other participating economies. "Therefore, it carries savings not only for business people but for governments, too," Azman said in his welcoming remarks at a briefing on Apec Business Travel Card here Thursday. ABTC Malaysia has issued 73,692 cards since 1999. As of June 2017, there were over 15,000 active cardholders. Azman said although Malaysia’s uptake was on the rise, it was still low compared to Apec counterparts such as Australia, Singapore and South Korea, which had higher numbers of ABTC cardholders. The highest issuing authority in descending order, was from China with 41,726 cardholders, South Korea (39,507), Singapore (30,485), Hong Kong (28,918), Japan (16,796), Australia (16,595), followed by Malaysia, Vietnam and others. APEC's 21 member economies comprised the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. On the US Visa Waiver programme, Immigration Malaysia Director-General, Mustafar Ali, said the matter was still under discussion with Washington. He said although there were changes in the country's administrative, the discussions were "always on a positive note." "The programme will proceed. No matter who is the president, we need to discuss to facilitate the programme," he said on the sidelines of the event. -- BERNAMA