13 June:An outsourcing centre to streamline the application process for Indian visa was inaugurated at the booming 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 (IVAC), Consul General of India Gautam Bambawale said at a function in Guanzhou, located about 120 kms northwest of Hong Kong.
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, would commence operations from 16th June, 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," Bambawale said.
He said outsourcing which helps streamline the visa application process has 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 is "getting more intense every passing day," Bambawale said trade and economic cooperation was booming.
Trade between Guangdong province and India increased by 55 percent in 2007 and the same steady 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 5th June.
The decision to open Consulate in Guangzhou was taken during the visit of the Chinese President to India in 2006.Courtesy : DD NEWS