Tourists may in the near future enjoy immigration privileges to travel in five Southeast Asian countries with a single visa, The Nation reports.

The foreign ministers of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and Laos will discuss the issue when they meet here today. The two-day meeting will convene under the “Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation (Acmecs) umbrella.

“The one-visa, five-countries scheme proposed by Thailand is aimed at boosting tourism throughout the region. Its character will be along similar lines to that of the Schengen visa for European countries, by which a tourist can travel with a single visa,” Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said on arriving in Siem Reap.

The idea aims to help Acmecs countries that do not have embassies in many countries and aid potential visitors who do not have convenient access to the embassies of their intended country of destination.

“All five countries have agreed in principle to the Thai initiative. We are open, however, if not all countries are ready to enter the scheme. Countries that are ready can start first and the rest can join later,” Kanthati said.

Piyawat Niyomriksh, the Thai ambassador to Cambodia, said: “We are well aware that some countries still have some concerns about safety and security. Their laws may not enable them to join it right now. They can do so when they are ready,” he said.

The ministers will also discuss details of the scheme, including the sharing of visa fees among the member states, he said.

The five-country meeting is aimed at strengthening cooperation on energy, transportation and farming, in the hope that cooperation brings more income and greater understanding to visitors and countries alike.

A principle of Acmecs is to ensure that all countries earn equal benefits from their cooperation, said Thai Ambassador to Burma, Suphot Dhirakasal.

“Each country has to be in a win-win situation as a result of their cooperation. And their people would surely gain benefits once the project came into practice,” he said.

On the subject of energy cooperation, Suphot said each Acmecs country had many different energy resources and the world was in urgent need of more energy, particularly oil and its substitutes.

“Thai [foreign ministry] permanent secretary Krit Garnjana-Goonchorn told the gathering of senior officials during preliminaries to the main meeting that to counter the shortage of energy, all countries had to be interested in energy security and planning,” said Suphot.

Krit Kraichitti, the Thai ambassador to Vietnam, said the meeting of senior officials had agreed that people should be encouraged to use road networks linking the five countries.

“Now the routes that connect the five countries are finished, but a relatively small number of people use the roads. The governments will launch campaigns to encourage them to travel overland,” he said.