Jero Wacik:

VoA, Not to Removed but Must be Evaluated

Visa on Arrival (VoA) should not removed, however importantly to be evaluated and revised for its operation system, for example, by inserting the payment locket and adjusting the visit term and number of the country. “The 3 days visit length can be expanded to become 6 days, or 30 days becomes 60 days,” said Ir. Jero wacik, S.E., the recently selected Minister of Culture and Tourism, in Denpasar, last Friday (29/10).

It said, the VoA’s manner was discussed a week after he was officially
elected as a minister. The discussing term is to elevate, and as soon as possible restore the obstacle operational system of the visiting tourist process to Indonesia.
Process of achieving the VoA should be managed in flexible way. For this, a corporation is needed between government and tourism components. “VoA is not to remove, just rearrang the implementation,” he explicitly claimed.
During his visit to Bali, Jero Wacik invited the Minister of Law and Human Rights, Hamid Awaludin who manages the VoA problem. Since the validation of VoA, according to Wacik, until September 2004 the number of tourist visits to Indonesia is about 5 million with total income 3 billions Rupiah. “Last December, the income target from the tourism sector will reach 5 Billion Rupiah. For that, I will keep promoting Bali and Indonesia tourism abroad, so it will able to invite 8 millions tourists,” he seriously explained.
Whilst the minister of Law and Human Rights, Hamid Awaludin explained, from the immigration viewpoint, income is linked with security conditions, because good security needs funding. The country’s income for about 8 months of VoA validation reached US$ 29 millions. “The VoA service in Ngurah Rai airport is less, long queues sometimes exists. For solutions, we need to add to the service counter,” he said..
Jero Wacik also visited the Bali Provincial Police Chief, Irjen Pol. Drs. Made Mangku Pastika. Via Mangku, asking the police to keep keeping Bali save. “If Bali is safe, tourists will continue to come to Indonesia. And, for Indonesia tourism promotion finance, through Bali, we will do our best via the ministry department,” he described while confessing that he feels glad because the tourism minister is not included within the cabinet at first, but in reality, it swelled to become a department.
(BTN/015)