A building is seen in Vitebsk city, Belarus, April 19, 2017. (Xinhua/Shi Hao)

MINSK, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Belarus is planning to extend visa-free entry from current five days to 10 days in 2018, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Alexander Ganevich, Deputy Head of the Central Consular Office of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, said the visa-free period of traveling to Belarus through the Minsk National Airport may be extended to 10 days in 2018.

The official added that they plan to extend the visa-free stay to 30 days during the period of the Second European Games in Belarus in 2019.

According to Ganevich, Belarus issued up to 300,000 visas in 2015 and 275,000 visas in 2016. Due to the introduction of the visa-free regime, the number of visas issued in 2017 is expected to decline.

The five-day visa-free regime started to work in Belarus in February 2017 for citizens from 80 countries.