REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli rejected suggestion to include Israel as country who gained visa-free facility to visit Indonesia.

"There is a proposal that Israel can be given visa-free, but we rejected," he said, via his official Twitter account @RamliRizal, Monday (22/12) night.

The statement was delivered by Rizal to answer a question from one of his followers who questioned a number of media reports related to the granting of visa-free visits to Israel.

His statement was also used as clarification on previous reports that stated Israel became one of recipient countries of visa-free facility.

Earlier, the government has given visa-free visits to 84 countries, which were planned to be effective this week. These countries include Australia, Brazil, Ukraine, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Palestine, Honduras, Pakistan and Mongolia.

Then, Sierra Leone, Uruguay, Bosnia Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Albania, Mozambique, Macedonia, El Salvador, Zambia, Moldova, Madagascar, Goergia, Namibia, Kiribati, Armenia, Bolivia, Bhutan, Guatemala, Mauritania and Paraguay.

Rizal hoped, granting visa-free visit to Indonesia could encourage foreign tourists to visit the country, which was expected to reach 20 million people by 2019.

Visa-free facilities which were given last October to 47 countries has encouraged the growth of foreign tourist visits of up to 19 percent. It was much higher than normal growth in the range of 6-8 percent.

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