Bilingual | 毛宁：外交部推出“三减三免”便利中外人员往来
“外交部发言人办公室”消息，在3月4日外交部例行记者会上，东方卫视记者提问：据报道，上周五，中泰互免签证协定正式生效。数据显示，3月1日当天泰国游客赴华旅游订单同比去年增长三倍，较2019年增长超160%。随着外国游客赴华热情的逐渐高涨，中方将为便利他们来华提供哪些协助？
Dragon TV: It was reported that the mutual visa exemption agreement between China and Thailand came into force last Friday. Data shows that the number of travel orders by Thai tourists to China on March 1 increased by three times than that of last year and by over 160 percent than that of 2019. As more and more foreign tourists travel to China, what will China do to facilitate their trips?
毛宁：随着中国免签“朋友圈”持续扩容，外籍游客来华人数明显增长。春节期间，入境游人数达323万人次，法国、德国、马来西亚、新加坡等新增可免签入境中国的国家游客增长明显，上述国家春节入境游订单总量较2019年同期翻番。
Mao Ning: As China rolls out the visa-free policy for an increasingly larger number of countries, the number of foreign tourists to China has increased significantly. During the Spring Festival holiday, the number of inbound travelers reached 3.23 million. In particular, we have seen an obvious surge of travel orders from newly-added countries that enjoy the visa-free policy such as France, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore, with the total number doubling that of the same period in 2019.
为便利中外人员往来，外交部推出“三减三免”，即减少签证申请表填报内容、阶段性调减签证费、简化来华留学审批手续、免采部分申请人指纹、免签证预约、对法德等国试行单方面免签政策。为解决外籍人员移动支付难的问题，中国人民银行指导支付机构提高绑卡效率、简化身份验证安排、提高移动支付单笔交易限额；北京推动重点商圈、景点、公园、酒店升级改造外卡受理能力，建立首都国际机场和大兴国际机场境外来宾支付服务示范区；上海在酒店、旅游景区等场所开通外卡POS机。此外，几大电信运营商在主要城市机场口岸新增多个服务网点，方便外籍人员入境办理手机号码。
The Foreign Ministry has rolled out six new measures to facilitate cross-border travel, including shortening visa application forms, lowering visa fees for the entire year, streamlining approval procedures for foreign students, exempting certain applicants from fingerprinting, providing walk-in without appointment visa application service and extending unilateral visa-free policy to France, Germany and some other countries on a trial basis. To address the difficulties foreigners face in mobile payment, the People’s Bank of China has instructed payment institutions to improve the efficiency of linking mobile payment accounts with foreign bank cards, streamline identity authentication procedures and lift single mobile payment cap. In Beijing, facilities in CBDs, scenic spots, parks and hotels are being upgraded to enable the handling of foreign bank cards, and demonstration zones of payment service for overseas visitors were set up at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport. In Shanghai, POS machines that can handle foreign bank cards were installed in places such as hotels and scenic spots. China’s leading telecom operators opened new shops at the airports of major cities to help foreigners get a mobile number easier upon arrival.
我们欢迎更多外国朋友到中国来，将继续致力于为他们提供安全、舒适、便捷的旅行环境。
We welcome more foreign friends to China and will continue working to provide a safe, enjoyable and convenient traveling environment for them.
来源：外交部发言人办公室
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