Leading business chambers in Hong Kong urge incoming leader to scrap quarantine for travellers, provide pandemic exit plan
- Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce says John Lee should make resumption of normal travel with mainland China priority
- European Chamber of Commerce expresses hope city will provide mainland with example of how to reopen to world
Two of Hong Kong’s largest business chambers have called on the next government to scrap quarantine requirements for travellers or risk jeopardising the city’s recovery.
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday said it hoped the new administration of John Lee Ka-chiu would prioritise the resumption of regular travel with mainland China and the rest of the world, as the existing curbs were undermining the city’s economy.
Lee’s office told the Post, however, that the time was not right to further ease restrictions on arrivals, saying a balance had to be struck between “public health and travel convenience”.
Speaking from Italy, European Chamber of Commerce chairman Frederik Gollob on Monday noted that Europeans were resuming normal life, while Hong Kong remained cut off from the rest of the world.
He called on the incoming government to make a “bold move” and present an exit plan to move the city out of the pandemic and reopen its borders.