Taiwan Finds Difficulty In Opening New Branch Office In E Java

Jakarta, Aug 16 (Antara) - Head of the Taiwanese Economic and Trade Representative Office (TETO) in Indonesia Andrew Hsia said his side found difficulty in opening a new branch office in East Java and other provinces. "In fact, the presence of such new branch office in other provinces of Indonesia is badly needed to ease and accelerate the services to the Indonesian people wishing to get visa from Taiwan," he said here on Friday. According to him, everyday TETO office in Jakarta dealt with around 400 to 500 visa applicants from Indonesians wanting to travel to Taiwan and most of them came from many provinces of Indonesia. "The cost will be higher for them and not efficient if they have to go to Jakarta first just to get visa from TETO office," Information Division Chief Tommy Lee said. If there are some TETO offices in East Java, Central Java or Bali, practically visa applicants can have their visa issued in their respective region, so it`s not necessary for them to spend a lot of money for the transportation and accommodation costs in Jakarta. "In reality, it is difficult for us to get a permission to open a new branch office in other regions of Indonesia, even it is exactly requested by Indonesian authorities in charge of manpower," he said. In other foreign countries, TETO can open its branch offices or representative offices in other regions. But in Indonesia, TETO representative office is only located in Jakarta. According to Andrew, in the context of manpower, Taiwan is a main destination country of most Indonesian workers whose number reached 186,000 people in July 2012. This number is almost the same with the local Taiwanese population. Seen from the tourism sector, Indonesia is one of the favourable tourist attractions for many Taiwanese tourists, thus causing the frequency of direct flights from Taiwan to Indonesia and vise versa to stand at 100 flights per week which is estimated to carry around 230,000 tourists to Indonesia. More supports In the meantime, Head of the Indonesian Workers Placement and Protection Agency (BNP2TKI) Moh Jumhur Hidayat on a separate occasion said that he supported the opening of new branch office of TETO office in East Java and other regions of Indonesia. "I really support the idea to open a new TATO branch office," he said. Djumhur admitted that his side has sent a recommendation to the National Intelligence of Indonesia (BIN) and relevant authorities on the need to open a new TATO branch office in East Java. "I have given the recommendation to BIN office, but till now there is no reply from that agency," said Djumhur, reportedly to be among presidential candidates of the Democratic Party. Earlier, a media reported that Budiyanto, a member of the House`s Commission I of Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction, also supported the opening of a new TETO branch office in the regions. According to him, the number of Indonesian workers in Taiwan was standing at 180,000 people, majority of whom came from East Java. So far, Indonesian worker from East Java have to go to Jakarta to arrange their working requirements and visa. Therefore, in Budiyanto`s view, it was important for Taiwan to open a trade representative office in Surabaya, as it will be helpful to workers in East Java.