Businesspersons from Gulf countries will be eligible to enter Pakistan without being subject to visas, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif has announced.
The visa abolishment decision comes amid efforts to further help the economic growth of Pakistan VisaGuide.World reports.
In a bid to deal with the ongoing financial crisis, authorities in Pakistan sought help from other countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Earlier this month, Pakistan and the IMF agreed on a $7 billion loan deal to strengthen economic gains made in 2023, as reported by Arab News.
Through a statement, the government said that the government was attempting to facilitate the process of obtaining a visa for the business community and tourists interested in visiting Pakistan.
Visa-free entry into Pakistan for businessmen from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has been approved, due to which investment and business opportunities in Pakistan from the Gulf countries will increase further.
Recently, the government of Pakistan has sought to attract a larger number of investments. In addition, it announced visa-free access to a total of 126 countries, facilitating the entry rules for tourists and those planning to travel to Pakistan for business purposes.
With the decision to relax the visa policy, Pakistan will become an attractive destination for foreign nationals in terms of business and tourism. A separate sub-category has also been approved for visa-on-arrival facility for Sikh pilgrims holding passports of third countries.
The Ministry said that citizens of these 126 countries are eligible to obtain business and tourist visas for a period of 24 hours through an electronic travel authorization form and will be excluded from visa processing fees.
In addition, Pakistan also announced that it would launch an e-gates facility at Gwadar Port at nine of its airports. In this regard, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that these e-gates would be installed in the first phase at Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore airports.
Significant Increase in Tourism Figures in 2023
The World Tourism Barometer of the World Tourism Organization of the United Nations revealed that in the first nine months of 2023, Pakistan was the best-performing destination in terms of tourism.
The same revealed that the country made an increase of 92 per cent in 2023, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
According to the World Tourism Barometer, Pakistan saw a 115 per cent increase in foreign tourist arrivals in comparison to 2022 statistics.
The figures from the World Tourism Barometer also revealed that other leading best-performing destinations in terms of tourism were Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Romania, when it comes to European countries.