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HONG KONG, Jan.2 (SCMP): Hong Kong’s Commerce Minister is not optimistic about resuming talks on the postponed travel bubble with Singapore, citing the growing Covid-19 pandemic around the world, but has offered A dash of hope to eager travelers by pointing to shots.
In a comprehensive interview, Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah said the prospect of quarantine-free air travel deals, while bleak in the short term, could be salvaged if inoculation campaigns turn the tide against the coronavirus.
When Hong Kong’s fourth wave of infections erupted in late November and derailed the travel bubble with Singapore at the last minute, Yau said the foundations had been laid between the two cities.
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“The outbreak is at its peak globally, the time is not right,” he said. “Everyone has to find a solution, vaccines are one, but they have to be supported by evidence.”
Yau spoke to him Send on Dec. 22, with the city still mired in its latest battle with Covid-19 amid border control measures and hardened social distancing. Since the fourth wave occurred on November 20, Hong Kong’s case count had soared to more than 8,500 and more than 130 related deaths, and on Christmas Eve, the government extended mandatory hotel quarantine requirements from 14-21 days for all arrivals from outside of China. . Those in Taiwan, Macau and mainland China would continue their 14-day home quarantine requirement.
The travel bubble with the city-state was put on hold on November 21, just one day before the first flight took off. Since then, it has been delayed until 2021.
Hong Kong, Singapore curbed the travel bubble until 2021
Yau said Singapore was one of the first 11 countries it contacted to initiate such arrangements in early September. Others included Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, France, Switzerland, and Germany.
“We have learned a lot from the fixes we put into the Hong Kong-Singapore air travel bubble, which has the main ingredients for resumption and which involves repeated testing before and after arrival,” Yau said.
“All the built-in mechanisms are there, and when the situation allows, and we are happy, the Singapore government and many other governments will also be happy to proceed on this basis.”
Such arrangements are seen as a first step in resuming international travel and circumventing the dreaded quarantine restrictions, which have killed the drive for many to fly.
On Boxing Day, Japan, one of Hong Kong’s favorite destinations, said it would close its borders to all foreign visitors from Monday until the end of January.
Yau said the right circumstances were needed for the travel bubbles to begin, and the recent discovery of a mutated strain of the coronavirus in Britain, which led many countries to close their doors to arrivals from the country, signaled that the pandemic it was still going.
British authorities had said the new strain was 70% more transmissible and was already “out of control” there.
Success of Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble is ‘critical’ for both cities
Since December 22, Hong Kong has banned all passenger flights from Britain to the city. However, outbound flights are not prohibited.
“All governments are faced with the task of stopping imported cases,” Yau said. “We cannot take chances and therefore Hong Kong follows other jurisdictions to detain visitors for the time being, hopefully this will be a short period for people returning from the UK.
“Vaccines are definitely an important milestone. Without them, the whole world would still be in a partial shutdown, ”he said.
Executive Director Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stated on December 23 that the city had finally secured 22.5 million doses of vaccines, enough for the entire population of 7.5 million. The government is also looking for more supplies.
Yau said he believes that the availability of vaccines would also help restore business confidence in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong has been hit in multiple ways: we had social unrest, which has subsided, we are still in the current trade war between the United States and China, so we will wait and see if the new American administration takes a different stance,” he said. the minister, referring to the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, who will officially take office in January.
Yau warned that amid the challenges facing the city, the pandemic would not go away overnight either, even with vaccinations. “Hong Kong’s resilience is being tested, as it has been for the last two or three years.”
Passenger hopes were dashed when the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble was suspended
He also noted how the city endured the brunt of US sanctions after the enactment of the national security law imposed by Beijing on June 30.
The damaged city’s economy showed signs of healing, he argued, citing a shrinking year-on-year contraction in gross domestic product in the second and third quarters of this year compared to before.
Starting in the third quarter of this year, the city has weathered an unprecedented drop in GDP for five consecutive quarters. But the decline slowed in the third quarter, to just 3.5 percent, compared with 9 percent in the second quarter and 9.1 percent in the first.
Industries like tourism, aviation, hotels, restaurants and bars, and retailers have been hit hard, crippled by social distancing rules and high unemployment.
The government has provided more than HK $ 316 billion in relief measures to businesses and residents severely affected by the pandemic.
Yau cited a scheme in which the government was offering a 100 percent guarantee for small and medium-sized businesses to borrow up to HK $ 2 million to ease cash flow problems. He said the aid measure had already proven popular with businesses, noting the approval of 24,000 applications, totaling HK $ 38 billion today, noting that registration would be open until April.
For future growth, Hong Kong is aiming to become a member of the world’s largest free trade pact, the recently founded Regional Comprehensive Economic Association (RCEP), which seeks to break down trade barriers between 15 countries, including China. The city also has its sights set on the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“RCEP is a ray of light, a vote of confidence for Hong Kong and related economies,” Yau said. – South China Morning Post
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