The Hindu : National : India visa centre inaugurated in China

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India visa centre inaugurated in China

Beijing: An outsourcing centre to streamline the application process for Indian visa was inaugurated at Guanzhou city in Guangdong province on Friday.

The process of applying for an Indian visa will be outsourced to the new India Visa Application Centre, Consul General of India Gautam Bambawale said at a function in Guanzhou.

The inauguration of the centre comes a week after the new Consulate General of India was opened in Guangzhou.

The centre, to be run by GZL International in consultation with VFS Global Services, will commence operations from June 16, catering to visa applicants from Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan, Fujian, Hainan and Hunan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. “We at the Consulate General of India, Guangzhou, are already issuing about 100 visas every day. We expect this figure to grow exponentially in the coming months,” Mr. Bambawale said.

He said outsourcing had been implemented not only in Beijing and Shanghai but also at many other Indian embassies and consulates across the world.

Observing that interaction between India and China was “getting more intense every passing day,” Mr. Bambawale said trade and economic cooperation was booming.

Trade between Guangdong province and India increased by 55 per cent in 2007 and the same growth was taking place this year too.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had inaugurated the Consulate General of India at Guangzhou, the second in China after Shanghai, on June 5. -- PTI

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