By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat Taiwanese authorities are reviewing the expiring visa-free policy for Filipinos as they expect more or less 70 percent increase in inflow of Filipino tourists to Taipei from only 290,000 in 2017 by ramping up promotion to attract more visitors for MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibition) events. Y.H. Wang, director of economic division of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) or the de facto embassy of Taiwan in the country, told reporters of the ongoing review during  the “Meet Taiwan” event in Makati. Meet Taiwan is Taiwan’s MICE industry program that aims to strengthen the country’s position as a leading provider of MICE opportunities globally and in line with Taiwan’s new Southbound Policy which aims to increase the visibility of Taiwan companies at major events in ASEAN countries.  event where Taiwan offers Filipino business travelers information about the vast incentive travel options, top-notch meeting facilities and numerous attracting resources available in Taiwan. According to Wang, Filipino tourists to Taiwan in 2017 reached  290,000  was 68 percent higher than 2016. The increase could be partly credited by the move of Taiwan to waive the visa requirements for Filipinos since November last year, but is good up to July this year only. Although far from their powers, Wang expressed hope that Taipei extends this visa-free privilege. The visa-free, however, is not reciprocal as the Philippines does not grant visa-free to Taiwan, which has more tourists in the Philippines than Filipinos going to Taiwan. There was no data, however, to prove that the visa-free has helped in shoring up the flow of Filipino tourists to Taipei, which receives 10.73 million overall tourists in 2017.  Of this figure, 10 percent could be attributed to MICE. Jessie Tseng, executive director of Taiwan MICE PROJECT office, said the Philippines is similarly situated with this global figure where 8-9 percent of the 290,000 Filipinos in Taiwan in 2017 had been accounted for by MICE visitors. In the past, mainland China accounted for the bulk of Taiwanese MICE then it expanded to neighboring countries such as Korea and Japan under the “Go South” policy. The Taiwan authorities, however, has issued another New Southbound Policy to put more emphasis on the ASEAN region.