SINGAPORE — The journey bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore might take impact inside this month —and discussions are ongoing with different international locations together with Thailand and Japan, based on Hong Kong’s monetary secretary Paul Chan.
“We’re working exhausting with the Singaporean authorities,” stated Chan informed CNBC’s Emily Tan on Monday. “The goal is to launch this as quickly as doable inside November, and the sooner, the higher.”
The 2 cities in mid-October announced plans to allow leisure travel to resume with out the necessity for quarantines. As a substitute, vacationers would take a coronavirus take a look at earlier than departure. Hong Kong can also require a second take a look at after arrival.
Tourism and aviation have been hit exhausting by the pandemic this yr. Singapore and Hong Kong additionally do not have domestic air travel markets to cushion the blow.
On the identical time, we’re working very exhausting with the mainland authorities to attempt to revive the touring between Hong Kong and the mainland as a result of, business-wise, this is essential to hurry up the restoration of our financial system.
Paul Chan
Singapore has unilaterally opened its borders to vacationers from international locations the place the coronavirus state of affairs is underneath management corresponding to New Zealand and Brunei.
Chan stated Hong Kong is in talks with 10 different international locations about permitting comparable journey bubbles.
“For instance, Thailand, Japan — these are the international locations that we’ve got extra superior discussions with,” he stated, including that the authorities are working “very exhausting” to increase the community of air journey bubbles with completely different jurisdictions.
“On the identical time, we’re working very exhausting with the mainland authorities to attempt to revive the touring between Hong Kong and mainland as a result of, enterprise smart, this is essential to hurry up the restoration of our financial system,” Chan stated.
The town fell into recession last year after months of anti-government protests, and the Covid-19 outbreak dealt the economy another blow.
Nonetheless, when requested if Hong Kong may lose a few of its shine to Shenzhen, the secretary stated the monetary hub has a “very distinctive aggressive edge.”
Shenzhen celebrated 40 years as a particular financial zone final month and was given the flexibility to pursue reforms in some areas,
Chan stated there’s a “complementary cooperation” between Hong Kong and different Chinese language cities.
“There are areas that we’re extremely aggressive and main the way in which, however there are additionally different areas we are able to work with the neighboring cities to realize the utmost synergistic impact, for instance, innovation and know-how,” he stated.
“The way in which we see it’s, on this course of, we have to work collectively to leverage the very best final result for everybody involved,” he continued. “However however, in … sectors that we’re doing properly, we have to hold enhancing ourselves, making ourselves much more aggressive and forward of our competitors.”
