DAVAO CITY – China’s consulate general here formally launched its visa-processing center on Monday, which means overseas contract workers, tourists and other visitors to China no longer have to go to Manila to process their documents.
Davao Consul General Li Lin said the visa processing facility would play an important role in facilitating people-to-people exchanges and to improve further the existing bilateral relations between China and the Philippines.
China’s consulate general office in Davao will serve mainly the Mindanao area in the country’s southern part, as there has also been an existing consulate general office in Cebu to cater to the Visayas, aside from the consulate general in Manila and a consular office in Laoag City to cater to the Luzon area.
Li said the visa processing center is expected to increase the flow of traffic between Mindanao and China and would support the upcoming direct flights between Davao City and Jinjiang City in China’s Fujian Province. He said Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte had recently been to China to formally sign the sisterhood agreement between Davao City and Jinjiang City in China’s Fujian Province.
Li reiterated what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and President Xi Jinping said in their recent visits.
“To quote from our top Chinese leaders, if we work hand in hand, we can turn Davao into a major link in China’s belt and road initiative and President Duterte’s Build Build Build,” Li said.
Among those who lined up for a visa, Jill Irish P. Li, a Davaoeña who married a Chinese from Shanghai, said it was more convenient to have their visa processed in Davao, instead of in Manila. “It also makes it cheaper,” said Li. “We don’t have any plan to go to Shanghai this year because we were already there last year, but there has been a family emergency, so, we’re just glad we have this new facility here,” he added.
Davao Vice Mayor Bernard Al-ag, who was the first to register among visa applicants, said it had always been a challenge for travelers from Davao to process their visa in Manila. “So, I was just so glad that the consulate general finally opened the visa processing here,” said the vice mayor.
Al-ag would join the Davao delegates to Jinjiang during the upcoming maiden flight of Xiamen Airlines within this month.
Li said he was happy that barely a month after the opening of the consulate general office in Davao, they could finally process visa applications now.