Singaporeans who travel to Australia can get a new visa
that will let them enter the country for up to three months at a
time over six years.
This will make it easier for them to travel to
Australia for business and pleasure, instead of having to apply for
a fresh permit every few months.
The visa, which is exclusive to Singaporeans, was
announced on the first day of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull's three-day visit to Singapore.
It will begin by Jan 1, 2018.
Also announced was a new visa which will let
Singaporeans younger than 30 work and holiday in Australia for up
to a year.
The Work and Holiday Visa Programme begins on Aug 1,
and 500 places are available to citizens of each country.
In 2016, more than 230,000 visitor visas were granted
to travellers from Singapore, up 16 per cent from the year
before.
Those keen on the work and holiday visa should be aged
18 to 30 when they apply.
Singaporeans should hold a polytechnic diploma or
university degree, or have completed the equivalent of two years of
full-time tertiary study at a polytechnic or university.
Australian applicants should hold a university
degree, or have completed the equivalent of two years of full-time
undergraduate university study.
In a statement on Friday (June 2), the Australian
authorities said the new visa arrangements will further boost
tourism and business links between Singapore and Australia.
"It will make it easier for people to come to Australia
to visit friends and family while also enabling business operators
to conduct regular meetings or attend conferences in Australia,"
the statement said.
About 50,000 Singaporeans live in Australia, while
25,000 Australians reside in Singapore.
Last year, 400,000 Singaporeans visited Australia and
one million Australians visited Singapore.
Mr Turnbull is in Singapore for the second
Singapore-Australia Leaders' Summit, an annual meeting under a
comprehensive strategic partnership between both countries.
The upgraded free trade agreement between Singapore and
Australia, which was reviewed in 2016, will take effect in
September this year.
There is also steady progress in the joint development
of military training areas in Queensland, said Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong at a joint press conference with Mr Turnbull on
Friday.
He added that he looks forward to the training
arrangements being finalised in a treaty in 2018.
Said Mr Lee: "We deeply appreciate Australia's
continued support for Singapore's training needs."
Both countries are outward-oriented economies that
depend on trade, which is why they are friends with all major
powers including the United States and China, Mr Lee said.
This strategic alignment is why they work closely on
regional trade initiatives and agree on the importance of Asean as
well as an open and inclusive regional architecture, he added.
Singapore will chair Asean in 2018, and Australia will
host a special Asean-Australia Summit in Sydney in March that
year.
Mr Turnbull said both countries are bound together by
shared values of a rule-based international order and rule of law
in the region.
This order enabled economic progress which lifted
millions out of poverty, he added.
The two prime ministers also witnessed the signing of a
memorandum of understanding for stronger cybersecurity
cooperation.
Under it, Singapore and Australia will regularly
exchange information on cybersecurity incidents and threats,
promote innovation, and hold joint cybersecurity exercises focused
on protecting critical information infrastructure.
They will also work together to build cybersecurity
resources and know-how in the region.
Singapore has also signed cybersecurity cooperation
agreements with the US, France, India, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
An agreement to deepen cooperation in science was also
inked.
Australia's national science agency, the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(Csiro), and Singapore's data science consortium will provide
matching funds of up to $1 million for data science research in
urban mobility, and health and ageing.
Similar matching funds will be given by Csiro and
Nanyang Technology University for joint research projects on
advanced manufacturing, health and biosecurity.
The two agreements inked on Friday form the second
tranche of deals under the comprehensive strategic partnership,
which was reached in 2015.
The first tranche of deals - in defence, trade,
innovation and law enforcement - was signed in the Australian
capital of Canberra in 2016.
ST