JEDDAH: The Foreign Ministry will open a branch office in Makkah soon after this year’s Haj in order to reduce pressure on its office in Jeddah and provide quick service to people in and around the holy city.

Muhammad bin Ahmed Tayeb, director general of the ministry’s office in the Makkah province, said Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal had approved the proposal.

“The new office in Makkah will provide services, such as attestation of documents and issuance of business and visit visas,” Tayeb said.

The ministry has already opened an office at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry in order to provide various trade-related services.

Tayeb said the new Makkah office would reduce pressure on the Jeddah office by more than 40 percent.

“It will help people in provinces close to Makkah to get their work done quickly,” he pointed out.

The ministry’s regional office in Jeddah currently serves six other provinces, including Madinah, Asir, Najran, Jizan, Al-Baha and Tabuk.

The ministry recently established electronic links to major chambers of commerce in the country in order to facilitate the issuance of business visas.

The move also aims at putting an end to forged visas. “As many as 30 forged visas are detected daily, incurring heavy losses to businessmen,” said Mohammed Al-Salloum, undersecretary for consulate affairs.

Last year the ministry issued 165,000 business visas. “This year the number of such visas has increased considerably, reflecting the Kingdom’s growing economic strength and its business ties,” Al-Salloum said.

He said most business visits came from the United States and Europe.

“We also issued 6,000 tourist visas last year,” he said, adding that most of the tourists came from the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.

“The General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities will apply for tourist visas and we’ll provide them with the required number of visas for the period they specify,” Al-Salloum said

Abdullah Al-Talhi, director general of the ministry’s monitoring department, said the linkage with chambers would speed up issuance of business visas.

“It will also put an end to visa forgery,” he added.