Have you ever wondered what are the strengths of your country’s passport in allowing you to travel to certain countries? A powerful travel permit will allow you to have a visa-free access to various places across the world. As nations improve and work on their policies, here are the ranking for Southeast Asia countries as reported by 2018 Henley Passport Index.
| Regional Rank | Passport | Global Rank | Visa-free Access |
| 1 | Singapore | 2 | 176 countries |
| 2 | Japan | 3 | 175 countries |
| 3 | South Korea | 5 | 173 countries |
| 4 | Malaysia | 12 | 166 countries |
| 5 | Brunei | 22 | 153 countries |
| 6 | Taiwan | 32 | 134 countries |
| 7 | Timor Leste | 56 | 85 countries |
| 8 | Thailand | 64 | 73 countries |
| 9 | Indonesia and Philippines | 72 | 63 countries |
| 10 | China | 75 | 60 countries |
To be ranked 12th for the strongest passport globally is a huge deal for Malaysians as we have the highest-ranked passport among other developing countries. We truly have one of the finest passport to be placed among other first-world nations. Among the visa-free countries in other continents for a Malaysian passport are Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and Turkey.
However, Singaporeans have the right be proud as their country’s passport is ranked 2nd globally, just right behind Germany which has visa-free access to 177 countries in the whole world. The most recent country which lifted visa requirement for Singapore is Paraguay on October 2017 while countries that still require Singaporeans to apply for a visa are such as Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Libya.
If your country is not in the top 10 regional list, you can find out the passport ranking on Henley & Partners’ website.
Source from GoAsiaPlus
