CHINA. The long-awaited reopening of quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland could begin on a partial basis by December.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government said in a press release on Thursday that the HKSAR Government will continue to strengthen anti-epidemic measures with the target of ‘zero infection’. This programme would foster favourable conditions for the early resumption of quarantine-free travel between the Mainland and Hong Kong “in a gradual and orderly manner”, the statement said.
Any such opening, albeit partial to begin with, would nonetheless be warmly welcomed by Hong Kong’s airport, downtown, border and high speed rail station travel retailers. All have been hit hard by the collapse in visitor numbers caused by the Mainland/Hong Kong border closure and the SAR’s tough stance on reopening to the rest of the world.
HKSAR said that in order to enhance mutual understanding, a “constructive” video conference was conducted between the experts and relevant officials of the HKSAR Government and the Mainland authorities on 2 November to discuss border re-opening.
“The HKSAR Government will continue to work towards the goal of ‘zero infection’ and guard sternly against the importation of cases and the resurgence of local infections,” the statement said. “The HKSAR Government will also continue to strengthen and put forward various anti-epidemic measures in accordance with the principle of joint prevention and control, in order to ensure that resumption of quarantine-free travel would not impose additional risk to the anti-epidemic work in the Mainland.”
Quoting Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the South China Morning Post claimed that limited travel without quarantine to the Mainland could begin as early as next month. Ms Lam said that she expected such travel to expand significantly by February 2022.
“We hope that in February next year, during the third anniversary of the release of the Greater Bay Area Blueprint, the opening of our border can be of a certain scale so that we can organise some mass events,” she told business leaders in a reference to Beijing’s plan to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities into an economic powerhouse, the South China Morning Post reported.
According to the report, Beijing confirmed that both sides had reached “significant consensus” over reopening their border.
“Both sides met each other halfway and the full reopening of the border is progressing in an orderly manner,” a spokesman for the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office told the South China Morning Post.
Earlier the title reported that the first phase would be limited to Guangdong province for Hong Kong travellers, with Shenzhen as the only entry point. In a separate interview, Ms Lam said that the resumption of quarantine-free cross-border travel would be “gradual”. “You cannot enjoy this quarantine-free travel directly to Beijing, or Shanghai. It’s logical because we start with the Greater Bay Area,” she said.
Earlier in the week the South China Morning Post also reported that Airport Authority Hong Kong plans to segregate passengers on Mainland China flights from other international travellers in an unprecedented move to prevent cross-infection and build a stronger case for reopening the city’s border with the Mainland.
The proposal to divide Hong Kong International Airport into two zones involves assigning staff to either side with no mixing allowed during working hours, the report claimed.
