BANGKOK, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Discussion on a Schengen-style ASEAN single visa is still underway, while Thailand plans to start a single visa scheme with Cambodia as the first step, a Thai minister said Thursday.
"It is not that easy, but we are not stopping, so we have a single visa committee working together," Thailand's Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said during a tourism conference in Bangkok.
Kobkarn said that the committee has to work with her ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Immigration Bureau and Office of National Security Council.
"It not only touches one ministry in our country, it needs to answer questions of so many bodies," she said, adding this is an example explaining why a single visa for ASEAN has to take such a long time.
The minister said Thailand and the countries in ASEAN are still working on the single visa, but she didn't give any clear time frame.
Thailand plans to start a single visa with Cambodia but the problem of different visa fees needs to be tackled first, she said.
Officials from other ASEAN countries also welcomed ASEAN single visa.
Arief Yahya, Indonesia's minister of tourism, said a single visa for ASEAN can make it easier to promote ASEAN as a single destination.
