George Osborne to refund the cost of 25,000 Chinese tourist visas
As part of the effort to improve relations between the UK and China, Chancellor George Osborne plans to refund the cost of around 25,000 Chinese tourist visas. This was announced during the first UK-China Bilateral Investment Conference held recently in London and attended by Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai.
The plan will involve the refunding of fees on up to 25,000 visas and exempting approved tour groups from the expensive transit visa requirement, making it easier for tour groups to organise trips to the UK.
Such an action goes hand in hand with the Home Office’s relaxation of visa rules for Chinese tourists travelling to Europe and the UK which were recently announced. The news has been welcomed by UK business leaders along with the national tourism agency VisitBritian who described the announcement as ‘the perfect catalyst to enable Chinese tourists to not only visit Britain, but to travel right across the country’.
Osborne’s objectives were made clear in his speech at the recent Tory conference: ‘I want this to be a new chapter in the Britain-China relationship’.
This new chapter involves the signing of deals worth £2.6 billion pounds between Chinese and British firms as well as the creation of more flights between the two countries.
George Osborne also announced that Britain will be playing a leading role in Asia’s digital revolution, with British businesses helping Chinese websites – some of the biggest online businesses in the world – to build their digital media platforms. Other deals include British help for the Chinese rail infrastructure, as well as Chinese investment in areas such as UK shipping and healthcare.
The refunding of many Chinese tourist visas seems to be just the beginning of a new UK-China relationship which is hoped to bring in billions of pounds of new commercial deals to the UK. On top of all this, the first ever UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange will be hosted in the UK next year.
