Hotli Simanjuntak ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Banda Aceh   |  Sat, 10/03/2009 2:05 PM  |  The Archipelago

After a long wait, the central government has finally granted the Sultan Iskandar Muda (SIM) International Airport in Aceh the right to provide a visa-on-arrival (VoA) service to foreigners visiting the province.

Up to now, foreigners visiting Aceh could only apply for visas at the Indonesian Embassy in their respective countries or at the Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra.

"This request was approved to help speed up development in Aceh," the immigration division head of the Aceh justice and human rights office, Bambang Widodo, said on Friday.

The service will soon be offered at the SIM airport, following a regulation issued by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry in Jakarta recently.

Bambang said that to implement the VoA facility, the ministry would provide additional staff and an online information system.

Under the Government Regulation No 38/2009, the VoA issued will only be valid for seven and 30 days. A foreigner will be required to pay US$10 for a seven-day visit, and US$25 for a 30-day visit.

Bambang said the service would soon be available, after the airport management company provided the required additional staff and supporting facilities.

During the post-2004 tsunami, foreigners conducting humanitarian activities in the province were able to apply for visas on arrival in Aceh, but the service was withdrawn once the emergency response situation was considered over.

The provincial administration has since then repeatedly asked for the VoA facility, as the security situation in the province had improved following the end of the separatist conflict and the tsunami.

Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf even asked President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the VoA facility during his early August visit to officially launch the SIM airport.

The President directly answered the request by asking the Justice and Human Rights Ministry to issue the required regulation to implement the VoA facility at the airport.

Only two Malaysian airlines, Airasia and Firefly, offer international flights connecting Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Banda Aceh.

The visa-on-arrival process is now available to 63 nationalities at immigration checkpoints in 14 airports and 17 ports nationwide.

The Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung regency, just outside the provincial capital of Denpasar, is one of Indonesia's busiest points of entrance that has offered the VoA facility since last October.

About 1.9 million tourists visited Bali in 2008, spending an average of $1,000 per visit.

However, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry in July revealed irregularities to the tune of Rp 3 billion (US$292,000) from VoA fees at the Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali between October 2008 and May 2009.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalatta has said there are two types of visa-on-arrivals, for periods shorter than and longer than a week.

He also said the ministry's electronic system, which was implemented in October 2008, had enable the irregularities to be detected faster.

Basyir Ahmad Barmawi, director general for immigration, has acknowledged the electronic system allowed all immigration data to be integrated.

"We have invested Rp 53 billion in the system that currently integrates 104 immigration offices throughout the country.

"We are currently working on integrating data from 27 major immigration check points. We have to take it in stages," he said.

However, the system is so far only able to provide a database on the number of people arriving in Indonesia, who they are and what flight they arrived on.