A police officer handles exit formalities of tourists at Luohu Port in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on May 3, 2023. - Photo: Xinhua file
HONG KONG: Foreign business chambers and expatriates in Hong Kong have lauded the new immigration facilitation arrangement for non-Chinese Hong Kong permanent residents that enhances cross border people-to-people connectivity between Hong Kong and the mainland and reinforces the city’s strategic value as a gateway between the Chinese mainland and overseas countries.
While celebrating the 27th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the central government on Monday (July 1) announced that non-Chinese Hong Kong permanent residents will soon be eligible to obtain card-like mainland travel permits, similar to Chinese Hong Kong and Macao permanent residents.
The new measure will shorten immigration clearance procedures for non-Chinese permanent residents traveling to the Chinese mainland.
Johannes Hack, the president of the German Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said the mainland and Hong Kong authorities are taking a step-by-step approach to make the whole (travel) experience more seamless.
But the president added that the new measure benefits only non-Chinese Hong Kong permanent residents (who have lived in Hong Kong for more than seven years) while those non-Chinese Hong Kong residents (who have lived in Hong Kong for less than seven years) do not benefit.
“The really game-changer is that when any non-Chinese Hong Kong residents can also travel to the mainland more easily by getting a separate permit.
"Non-Chinese Hong Kong residents should also be able to apply for this card-like mainland travel permit.
"If this happens, this will endow something very unique for Hong Kong as the gateway to the Chinese mainland,” Hack told China Daily.
Responding to China Daily’s enquiries, the chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong Inaki Amate said he anticipated the new measure will definitively encourage more European nationals with permanent Hong Kong identity cards to take more business and leisure travel to the mainland.
“We also hope that this is just the first of many other measures to attract business travelers and tourists to the mainland, while we are expecting a lot more traffic across the border and that should help to improve several economic sectors,” Amate told China Daily.
David Cottam, an expatriate who is a Hong Kong permanent resident, told China Daily that the new measure puts out the message that people like him are welcomed on the Chinese mainland rather than merely being tolerated.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said in a statement responding to China Daily’s enquiries: “This will not only make travel easier and more convenient for expatriates in Hong Kong who have business interests in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, but also reinforce the strategic value of Hong Kong as a gateway for international businesses to invest in and learn more about the mainland.”
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce said in its statement: “While applying for a multiple entry visa to the mainland is simple, and the central government has even been expanding the list of countries whose residents can visit visa-free, they still need to go through the time-consuming passport lanes.
"The new measure will significantly reduce the immigration clearance procedure time.”
All non-Chinese Hong Kong permanent residents will be able to apply for the new card via China Travel Service (HK), which is operating on behalf of the country’s Exit & Entry Administration.
The card permits traveling to the mainland multiple times within a five-year validity period, with a stay not exceeding 90 days for each visit, without the need to apply for a separate visa for entry.
The Exit & Entry Administration will start issuing the new cards on July 10. - China Daily/ANN
