Business Mobility Group - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

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APEC Member Economies are committed to enhancing business mobility by exchanging information on regulatory regimes, streamlining the processing of short-term immigration for business travelers and related procedures for temporary residence of business people, and maintaining a fluid dialogue on these issues with the business community. This work is coordinated by the Business Mobility Group (BMG), formerly known as Informal Experts' Group on Business Mobility (IEGBM).

Business and Private Sector Participation

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) has made facilitation of business travel a priority. The Committee on Trade and Investment's agenda on business mobility has resulted from ABAC's recommendations, and the BMG liaises closely with ABAC on these developments. The business/private sector has also been closely consulted in the development of the APEC Business Travel Card scheme and the introduction of other APEC initiatives. ABAC continues to be a strong promoter of the APEC Business Travel Card.

Current Activities

The BMG is dedicated to working on initiatives to improve immigration processing for faster, smoother travel and to more effectively assure passenger safety and border security. Specifically, members are continuing, on a pathfinder basis, to implement Advanced Passenger Information (API) systems. Additionally, the BMG is progressing on a new Regional Movement Alert System by developing the capacity for positive validation of passports, and effectively enhancing security through coordination among border agencies, without noticeably impeding travelers' movements. Australia, the United States and New Zealand have implemented the system, and more BMG members are expected to participate in the future.

The BMG is also developing standards that will assist economies to improve the quality and consistency of their immigration services and systems. Standards that have been developed include: professional conduct of immigration officers; immigration legal infrastructure; improved travel document security; related issuing and storage systems; and transparency. The BMG's agreed capacity building is to set best practice standards against which all economies can self-assess their existing regimes and develop their own tailored strategic action plans. Technical and training assistance is provided to economies to build their capacity to implement these standards.

Also, economies continue working, on a 'best endeavors' basis, to streamline processing of temporary business residency permits, as well as to process applications from intra-company transfers within 30 days, where all documentation is complete.

In August 2008 the BMG organized a workshop aimed at motivating Member Economies to adopt international standards in implementing their Frequent Passengers Program (FPP) by incorporating biometrics to read passports and identification documents (ID's). APEC Economies use FPP with different technologies and methods that seek to ensure the correct and efficient identification of people at migratory controls. Improving traveler identity verification, increasing trust in traveler eligibility and improving traveler facilitation have all emerged as important issues for economies in the current climate of insecurity. These FPPs substantially benefit business people by allowing easy and safe transit through this sector.

Accordingly, participation in the workshop from specialized private sector bodies provided technical insight of how the aviation industry (IATA, ICAO) faces actual challenges in the sector and how advanced biometrics technology is used.

APEC Business Travel Card scheme

As a major support to business mobility, the APEC Business Travel Card scheme provides bona fide frequent business travelers with visa-free travel and expedited airport processing when visiting participating economies. APEC Member Economies fully participating in the scheme include Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Chile; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Philippines; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; and Viet Nam. Mexico is partly operational and is expected to become a full member by end 2008. In September 2007, the United States became a "transitional member" of the scheme with the aim of becoming a full participant within three years.

The BMG has established 2 sub-working groups to examine the options for managing the rapid growth of the ABTC scheme and to look at ways to enhance it, including ABAC's suggestion to look at the viability of enhancing the card with biometrics.

At the BMG meeting held in Arequipa, APEC member economies agreed to cooperate to share information and best practices on immigration legislation, relevant policies, procedures and technologies.

A BMG report submitted to the Committee on Trade and Investment in August 2008 in Lima, indicated a 79% increase between 31 July 2007 - 31 July 2008 (44,931 cardholders).

Key Outcomes

Key outcomes in the area of business mobility include -

Increasing the number of APEC Business Travel cardholders, improving the operation of the scheme and the service to cardholders.

Working to build economies' capacity to process and adopt machine readable travel documents, incorporating biometric data, to improve travel document security and integrity, and thereby improve both security and border controls.

Progress on implemenation of advance passenger information systems (APIs) across the region, with increased safety and security for travelers and economies, in accordance with the BMG API Pathfinder Implementation Plan.
The development of best practice travel document examination regimes across the region to assist the detection of fraudulent documentation.
The development of standards to improve the security of travel documentation and immigration legal infrastructure, so as to enhance the security of borders and address illegal movement of people.
Continued progress by economies to improve the standard of professional immigration service.
Agreement to improved service standards for processing applications for, and extensions of, temporary residence permits for executives, managers and specialists transferred within their companies to other APEC Member Economies.
Collective agreement to continue to examine ways to streamline processing procedures for business travellers, and individual action to facilitate business travel, for example by expanding visa-waiver programs or extending the validity of multiple-entry visas or by joining the APEC Business Travel Card scheme.
Maintenance of up-to-date information on requirements for short-term business visas and temporary business residency permits in the Internet version of the APEC Business Travel Handbook, which is available on the BMG's website at www.businessmobility.org. The Handbook also includes contact information on offices that issue visas across the APEC region.