🇹🇭 Southeast Asia sets sights on Schengen
Today, Thailand's Prime Minister wants to bring Schengen-style visas to Southeast Asia, pre-poll numbers reach record highs in South Korea, and mass bleaching on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Welcome back to another edition of Indo-Pacific Pulse, the newsletter where we unpack all you need to know about the world’s fastest growing region and deliver it straight to your inbox, every single weekday.
Today is Monday April 8, 2024 and today’s edition takes about 5 minutes to read. Here’s what you need to know.
✈️ Around The Region
Here’s three key stories you need to know from the last 24 hours in the Indo-Pacific:
🇰🇷 South Korea: South Korea’s pre-polling numbers have reached record levels ahead of Wednesday’s election for the country’s National Assembly (Korea’s national legislature). The national early voting rate was 31.2%, which is the highest Korea has seen since introducing the option in 2016. The pre-polling is largely expected to benefit the country’s more progressive party, the Democratic Party of Korea, who currently sit in opposition.
🇳🇿 New Zealand: New Zealand’s Minister for Immigration has announced a new suite of restrictions on prospective immigrants to the country. The restrictions apply to the country’s Accredited Employer Worker Visa, which enables foreigners with a job offer to move to the country, and includes introducing strict English tests, skills requirements, and requiring that jobs are only offered to foreigners if no suitable Kiwis can be sourced. In 2023, 173,000 non-New Zealand citizens migrated to the nation and the new restrictions have been announced to reduce “unsustainable” migration. The move comes as New Zealand has introduced a range of significant policy changes since the election of a new conservative government last year, a stark contrast from seven years under Jacinda Ardern’s progressive Labour government.
🇮🇩 Indonesia: Two Papuan rebels have been killed in a shoot out with security officials in Indonesia’s east province of Papua. The tensions come as Papuans continue their movement for independence. West Papua became part of Indonesia in the 1960s following a UN-ballot, which was widely regarded as being fraudulent. A low-level insurgency by Papuan rebels has continued since West Papua became Indonesian territory.
🇹🇭 Thailand | Prime Minister proposes Schengen-style visa for Southeast Asia
Thailand’s Prime Minister has proposed that Southeast Asia adopts a Schengen-style visa to improve access to the region for recreational and business travellers. The proposal would see Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam collaborate to allow for one single visa application to access the region, streamlining what is currently a complex landscape of varying visa requirements.
🎥 Southeast Asia’s seen this film before
Much of Southeast Asia is organised under the Association of South East Asian Nations, a multilateral organisation that includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ASEAN offers a similar, albeit very scaled-down version, of the Schengen area’s visa-free travel zone. Currently, all ASEAN passport holders have visa-free access to other ASEAN countries for at least 14 days and up to 30 days.
For non-citizens, ASEAN proposed the development of a streamlined, regional visa scheme in 2011, allowing one application process that would grant access to all member countries, similar to the Schengen visa in Europe. However, extensive differences between each countries’ visa and immigration policies, as well as administrative tensions within ASEAN, meant the proposal was scrapped.
💎 How is this new proposal different?
Thailand’s proposal focuses on creating opportunities for high-value tourists and investors. Currently, these groups face a range of different policies within Southeast Asia, ranging from strict visa requirements through to 90 days visa-free depending on the country. Evidently, this creates barriers for tourism and doing business in the region despite the close proximity of the countries. The Thai proposal would benefit non-citizens looking for easier regional access, but in contrast to previous attempts, is not ASEAN-wide, with members like Singapore and The Philippines excluded.
🧩 Coordination will be critical for success
When considering ASEAN’s previous failures in getting a Schengen-style visa off the ground, successful multilateral coordination will be critical for the proposal’s success. It has been suggested that bilateral visa agreements (i.e. between two countries) could be a starting point for the scheme before expanding region-wide, to avoid a repeat of previous administrative failings.
🇪🇺 EU-style success still a long way off
While the plan can be applauded for its ambition, it is still early days. With factors like a common currency still lacking, the tourism and economic benefits brought about by the Schengen zone (and European Union agreements more broadly) are still a long way off for Southeast Asia. A common visa access scheme would certainly be a start, but given a poor track record of multilateral collaboration, benefits resembling those of the EU are unlikely to be seen anytime soon.
🤿 Diving Deeper
Wanting more news from the Indo-Pacific? Check out these three articles:
📫 Postcards from the Indo-Pacific
This edition of Indo-Pacific Pulse is sent with ❤️ from Ninh Bình, Vietnam. The Mua Caves (pictured) provide an excellent view of Ninh Bình’s many paddy fields, with a 496-step hike required to reach the peak and view the opulent dragon sculpture which sits at the top. The many mountain goats that skillfully scale the Mua Caves’ cliffs are not to be missed. 🐐
Merry mountain goat-ing,
The Team @