The European Commission has proposed that the European Council consider more flexible tourist and business visa policies for foreigners coming to the EU including those from Vietnam, said Antonia Tajani, European Commission’s Vice President and also acting European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry. Tajani made the statement at a press conference held in Hanoi on November 13.

“The tourism sector is one of the most important for us. We want to increase the number of tourists from foreign countries including those from Vietnam. For this reason, we will consider a more flexible approach to tourist and business visas for people from Vietnam and other countries such a China, Russia and other countries,” Tajani emphasised.

According to him, in the next two or three years, there will be two important events in the EU. The first one is the Expo 2015, which is scheduled to take place in Milan in 2015 and the second is the 2016 UEFA European Championship (Euro 2016) in France in 2016. The EU wants to utilise these events to attract more tourists and increase the number of Vietnamese tourists to the EU.

During Tajani’s visit to Vietnam from November 12 and 13 came with a theme of “Mission for growth”. He met with leaders of the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Tajani and Hoang Tuan Anh, Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism signed a Letter of Intent on behalf of the ministry on sustainable tourism in order to promote further dialogue and cooperation between the EU and Vietnam on initiatives involving sustainable tourism and exchange good practices in the fields of natural and cultural heritage preservation as well as promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises, training and skills, and the improvement of the quality of tourism.