Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) Taiwan's government reiterated its call Tuesday for Malaysia to grant visa-free privileges to Taiwanese visitors on the basis of mutual benefit.
Taiwan has allowed Malaysians to visit Taiwan without a visa since 2002, and it hoped that the Malaysian government would grant the same treatment to Taiwanese visitors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman James Chang said at a press briefing.
"We are treating this matter as an important issue and urge Malaysia to provide visa-free treatment for Taiwan visitors as soon as possible based on mutual benefit, " he said.
Malaysia has canceled visas on arrival for all countries since Aug. 15, claiming that many visitors had abused the privilege and overstayed the visas they received.
Lo Yu-chung, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia -- Taiwan's representative office in the country in the absence of bilateral diplomatic ties -- was quoted by Malaysia's Sin Chew Daily Tuesday as saying that Taiwan may introduce visa requirements for Malaysian visitors in the future.
Lo was quoted as saying that it would be inconvenient for some 200,000 Malaysians who visit Taiwan every year if Taiwan were to re-impose a visa requirement.
Taiwan's Legislative Yuan urged the MOFA earlier this month to do something about those countries that were granted visa exemptions by Taiwan but did not provide the same treatment to Taiwan's citizens. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls