Azlan Othman

The Bruneian passport is regarded as one of the biggest winners in the Global Passport Index, achieving the best net score for nine visa waivers gained or lost last year, and one of the fastest-growing passports for 2019.

These findings were recently published in a report by the Passport Index, a leading global mobility intelligence platform.

The report also found that Brunei has the 16th most powerful passport worldwide, with a Mobility Score of 153, giving its citizens the ability to travel visa-free to a total of 153 countries or destinations.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) passport continues to lead as the most powerful in the world. With a Mobility Score of 178, Emiratis now enjoys visa-free travel, or visa on arrival, to 90 per cent of the world. It has been a year since the UAE took the reigns as the most powerful passport, with a then record-breaking Mobility Score of 167.

Behind it are Germany, Finland, Luxembourg and Spain with visa-free travel to 172 countries; and Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Ireland and the USA for 171 countries.

Following the UAE and Qatar, which had net scores of +12 for the number of visa waivers gained and lost in 2019, was Rwanda with a net score of +11.

Ukraine, Macao, and Indonesia all added 10 countries to their passport power, while Brunei ended the year with nine visa waivers.

Empowered by Arton Capital, the Passport Index has become the world’s most popular global mobility intelligence platform, providing interactive travel requirements and the ability to compare, rank and improve passports based on their mobility scores.

In mid-2019, the Bruneian passport was ranked as the 21st most powerful travel document by another Index, the Henley Passport Index, enabling the Sultanate’s citizens to freely visit 165 destinations. In a previous update of the index, the Sultanate’s passport was also ranked the 21st most powerful in the world.

The Henley Passport Index is an annual ranking of the most powerful passport in the world, officially released in real-time each quarter.