ILS Sub-working Group Met with the National Immigration Administration (NIA)

2021-10-21 | Beijing

On 21st October, the European Chamber International Liner Shipping (ILS) Sub-working Group met with the National Immigration Administration (NIA). This is the first time that the ILS sub-working group held meeting with NIA and hoped that this would be the beginning to regular dialogue and exchanges in the future.

Division Director Gong Yao from the Division of Immigration Inspection of Department of Immigration Inspection and Border Control along with relevant officials from the same division attended the meeting. On the European Chamber side, ILS Vice-chair Tom Shi led the discussion.

At the meeting, attendants discussed the issue of omitting port call and the possible solutions to it. NIA officials participated in the discussion with an open and pragmatic mind, suggesting that, for the time being, foreign carriers can report to the previous port about its urgent omitting of the next port and it will be addressed in a case-by-case manner by the administration. Division Director Gong also proposed that in the coming future, trial ports can be used to address this matter.

Division Director Gong also expressed that NIA would like to learn the best practices from the European counterparts and hoped that a mutual communication channel would be formed between EU and China to provide better services to carriers.