A recent poll ranked Malaysia’s passport as the 9th best in the world for travellers, based on the number of visa-free countries people can travel to out of 219 destinations. Malaysia was ranked at No.14 from the previous index.
See Also: Holiday / Social Visit Visas in Malaysia
As revealed by the 2013 Visa Restrictions Index by Henley & Partners, a global consulting firm in international residence and citizenship planning, the Malaysian passport enables Malaysians to travel to 163 countries without a visa. Previously, Malaysians could only travel visa-free to 153 countries.
The same poll revealed that a Singaporean passport, which is ranked at No.6, allowed Singaporeans to travel without a visa to 167 countries.
“In today’s globalised world, visa restrictions are an important tool for governments to control the movement of foreign nationals across borders,” Henley & Partners said in a statement carried by Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald.
“At the same time, visa requirements or the lack thereof, are also an indication of the relationship between individual nations and the status of a country within the international community of nations,” it added.
Malaysia and Singapore were the only two Southeast Asian countries to make the top 10 list in the 2013 index.
According to the index, the best countries in the world to have a passport from are the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden. All three countries enabled visa-free entry to 173 countries.
The worst country to have a passport from is Afghanistan, which was ranked at No.93. A passport from Afghanistan allowed one to travel to 28 countries only, visa-free. This is followed by Iraq (visa-free entry to 31 countries), Pakistan and Somalia with 32 countries each.
To read the full list, click here.
Story from: The Malay Mail
Read more:
- Malaysia Ranked As Best Place To Retire In South East Asia
- Huffington Post Named Malaysia as the 2nd Best Stress-Free Solo Travel Destination in the World
- The Huffington Post Says It is Affordable and Easy to Rent in Malaysia
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