Philippines visa free entry countries were announced by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) this week. The seven privileged countries that will now enjoy travel to Philippines without any need for visa requirements include - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belize, Croatia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. This new policy comes into effect beginning April 15, 2014.

According to a statement by the DFA, this move is an effort undertaken to promote tourism and investment from these seven countries. The nationals need to present their passports with a validity of at least six months beyond the planned period of stay to be granted a Philippine visa free entry. Also a return or onward ticket maybe required to be presented to the visa authorities.

With Somalia being removed from the list of Philippines visa free entry countries, the addition of these seven makes it to a total of 157 countries that enjoy visa-free entry privileges.

"The DFA fully supports national efforts to attract more tourists and potential investors to the Philippines. In particular, the DFA, through its various embassies and consulates abroad, has been playing an active role in helping the Department of Tourism reach its target of 10 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2015," DFA Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis was quoted by Rappler.

Besides DFA, the Justice and Tourism departments together with the National Bureau of Investigation and other security agencies have been closely involved in compiling the final list of 157 privileged Philippine visa free entry countries. They can avail of a 30-day stay in Philippines without a visa.

However, Brazilian and Israeli passport holders will get to stay in Philippines for a period of 59 days due to the existing bilateral agreements.

Seguis further explains that the decision to grant visa-free entry privileges to the Central Asian and European countries are based on inputs from the Department of Tourism, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, Department of Justice, National Security Council and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Philstar reports.

Citizens of the Macau Special Administrative Region and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are allowed a 14-day visa-free entry into Philippines.

However, those with Macau-Portuguese passports and Hong Kong British passport cannot avail of such long-term stay privileges. They can stay in Philippines for not more than seven days without a visa.

Nationals of China and Taiwan, meanwhile, are prohibited from entering the country without government endorsement.