China is speeding up preparations to set up a "green card" system by the end of next year in order to attract more overseas professionals and investors.

The State Council recently issued a regulation to cut red tape relating to affairs of senior foreign experts and investors. The regulation was jointly drafted by nine ministries and administrations, including the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs.

According to the regulation, senior foreign experts and investors who need to enter China frequently can be given multiple-entry visas valid for between two and five years.

For those who need to work and live in China for a relatively long period, residence permits and multiple-entry visas valid for two to five years can be also granted.

Foreign experts who are already in China can apply to local exit-and-entry administration departments for visa alterations, the regulation said.

People currently abroad can apply either to the Chinese embassy or consulate or else to an exit-and-entry administration department in China.

The proposed "green card" system is one of several major changes that China's exit-and-entry administration will undergo during this year and next, Vice-Minister of Public Security Zhao Yongji told a conference organized by his ministry on exit-and-entry administration, which took place on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing.

On January 1 this year, visa offices at the Chinese mainland's 25 ports began to administer visas for members of overseas tourist groups organized by Chinese travel agencies.

On February 1, the exit-and-entry administration departments dropped their requirement that Chinese citizens applying for passports and visas submit foreign invitations and registration forms.

Under another reform, special passages were opened in major airports for Chinese people returning from abroad. More than 20 such passages have been opened, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Programs have also been set up in nine cities in South China's Guangdong Province, in Fushun in Northeast China's Liaoning Province and Qionghai in South China's Hainan Province to let Chinese citizens be issued with a passport on the spot.

By 2005, people in many large and medium-sized cities will be able to apply for passports using only their identity cards, the ministry said.

Vice-Minister Zhao said that, at the same time, exit-and-entry administration departments have never stopped cracking down on illegal migration.

Between April and June, public security bureaux at all levels arrested 8,200 people who had illegally crossed the border, stayed and started work in China, he said.

In East China's Fujian Province, which used to be a hub of human smuggling, the border police cracked down on 40 cases, seizing 300 illegal migrants and 200 organizers between April and July.

(China Daily August 3, 2002)