Following the signing of a 10-year visa deal with the United States last year, China is set to sign a similar deal with Canada, a move that will grant each country's citizens visas valid for up to 10 years, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The 10-year visa deal is expected to boost the number of Chinese tourists and investors to Canada and came at year after Ottawa in Canada cancelled a permanent residency visa program for foreign investors due to the growing number of wealthy Chinese who want to avail of the scheme.

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The China-Canada 10-year visa agreement will take effect starting Monday, the ministry said.

"China and Canada have just reached an agreement issuing visas to each other's citizens with the validity period of up to 10 years," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress, the country's Communist-controlled parliament, in Beijing.

Western countries have been implementing programs and regulations aimed at enticing wealthy Chinese to visit or invest. This year, more than 100 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad and most of them have the money to spend.

Germany, Italy, and other European and Asian countries have relaxed their visa processing regulations to ensure that Chinese tourists visit their countries.

Last year, US President Barack Obama traveled to the China for a state visit and to sign the historic 10-year visa deal between the world's biggest and second biggest economies.

The deal, Obama said is expected to raise the number of Chinese tourists and investors to the US. There were 1.8 million Chinese visitors to the US last year, Obama said, contributing $21 billion to the economy and supporting more than 100,000 jobs.

"This agreement could help us more than quadruple those numbers," Obama said at the time, describing it as an "important breakthrough which will benefit our economies, bring our people together".

TagsChina Canada Visa Deal, China Visa Deal, Canada Visa deal