Passengers walk in the departure hall of Hong Kong International Airport during the coronavirus pandemic in Hong Kong, March 21, 2022. (Photo by Reuters)
Hong Kong: Hong Kong should aim to create a quarantine-free business travel corridor as a precursor to a full reopening of its borders, as reconnecting the city with mainland China and the rest of the world is one of Beijing’s top priorities, government advisers said. I’ve said it.
Analysts and medical experts added that to achieve this goal, the incoming government under Chief Executive-designate John Lee should push for more flexible rules in negotiations to reopen borders.
The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council laid out five expectations for Lee Kuan Yew’s team on Sunday, including addressing pressing issues such as border reopening and strengthening Hong Kong’s role as an “international hub connecting the mainland with the world”.
In response, Executive Council members Ip Lau Sook-yee and Lam Kin-fung proposed on Monday that Hong Kong allow the establishment of quarantine-free travel corridors to allow small-scale businessmen to travel to the mainland.
Travelers may need to use smartphone apps with contact tracing capabilities, such as Guangdong’s health code, to “integrate with their systems,” she added.
Ms Yeh, who is expected to be the convener of non-official members of the Executive Council under the Lee Myung-bak government, also said she believed senior officials would expand ground rules in future negotiations, rather than just focusing on daily caseload as the main criterion for negotiations.
The incoming health minister, Luo Zhongmao, said on Sunday that not all mainland policies, such as universal testing, can be immediately replicated by Hong Kong, and that any policy changes will be based on scientific data and require further research by various departments.
“Of course, you look at the daily number of infections,” Yeh said. “But (officials on both sides) will also look at the number of hospitalizations, the number of critical cases, the age of patients in intensive care … and the overall vaccination rate in Hong Kong.
“Governments around the world are trying to prevent the public health system from collapsing…Hong Kong must avoid exporting risks to the mainland.”
In his capacity as Hong Kong’s No. 2 man last year, Lee Hsien Loong negotiated with mainland authorities on the gradual reopening of the border, based on the principle that Hong Kong could achieve zero infections locally.
Yip’s views were echoed by the government’s medical adviser Professor Hui Shu-cheong, who said the new government could put pressure on Hong Kong’s situation by emphasizing stable hospitalization and severe cases during border reopening negotiations.
“There was no opportunity to build on last year’s discussion, when the prerequisite was zero COVID-19, and we now have more than 1,000 community cases a day. However, when China changes its national policy, an opportunity may arise because It has also experienced a massive Omicron outbreak. “An outbreak like Hong Kong,” he said, referring to the Covid-19 crisis in Shanghai.
Liu Zhaojia, vice-chairman of the semi-official China Hong Kong and Macau Studies Association, said he believed Beijing was more concerned about Hong Kong’s containment of the epidemic, which was a necessary condition for Hong Kong’s reopening. boundary.
“The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office has made reopening the border one of its priorities. This shows that Beijing wants to do the same to increase John Lee’s popularity and authority,” he said.
Liu also said the concept of “zero COVID-19” was more a description of the direction and expectations of mainland authorities than a strict numerical target that cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing had to achieve.
“Beijing knows that for Hong Kong to remain connected to the rest of the world, it has to allow some flexibility, and mainland travel can start small (initiatives or plans),” he added.
An example of a “small-scale” initiative could be the issuance of up to 1,000 “point-to-point” business visas for Hong Kongers to travel to mainland provinces such as Guangdong to meet their staff and business partners, executive council member Lam said. .
“If you want to visit a company or factory, sign a contract or discuss business cooperation, you need to specify where you want to go,” the business lawmaker said.
Lam added that if daily imported cases were reduced to double-digit numbers, business visas should be introduced first, and Hong Kong’s seven-day quarantine requirement for international arrivals could be gradually relaxed to three to four days.
However, Yeh said she believed the seven-day quarantine rule could last “until late 2022 or early 2023”, even as the city loses out to regional rivals such as Singapore in terms of both expats and tourism.
Allan Zeman, chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group, suggested that Hong Kong should learn from Thailand’s experience. In Thailand, international tourists can stay in a hotel for one night and wait for the PCR test results to be negative before being released. Another PCR test can be done in the community five days after leaving the hotel, he added.
“With international reopening, if we want to be cautious, maybe we have to learn from what other countries have done,” Zeman said.
But he acknowledged that China did not want to open its borders immediately, and said he supported closed-loop or travel bubble arrangements that could be gradually loosened as a compromise.
“I can’t imagine China opening up everything now. They’re going to be cautious until October because of the (upcoming) party congress,” he said. “It’s up to China to make their own rules and see what works for them, but all I can say is we can get creative too.”
Xu said he believed Hong Kong had already met other standards set by mainland authorities in talks last year, such as the introduction of a risk exposure health code.
But another government adviser, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a senior microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, pointed out that in the renegotiation between the two sides, the mainland authorities may ask for more than a reduction in the number of cases.
He pointed to Hong Kong’s limited contact, trace and quarantine capabilities, a stark difference from the mainland’s systematic and effective approach to containing the outbreak that could pose problems.
“So their requirements to open borders are much stricter,” he said.
Separately, Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warned that Hong Kong’s travel restrictions meant the city’s airport faced increasing competition from other hubs.
“I think it’s very important for Hong Kong … to have the airport reopen without restrictions to maintain its status as a global hub airport,” Walsh told the media at the IATA annual general meeting in Doha.
“The longer Hong Kong operates under severe restrictions, the greater the structural damage to the hub.”
Walsh warned that as “the days go by”, there is a growing risk that Hong Kong will be “off the agenda” for many airlines looking elsewhere.
