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Document machines to ease border processing

The Immigration Department will turn to technology to speed up the clearance time for tourists at the border to one minute per person to cope with the expected surge in the number of visitors from the mainland.

The department revealed the plan a day after the central government announced it would allow residents from five more cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai - to travel to Hong Kong as individuals, rather than as part of tour groups, from September 1.

The relaxed policy had been implemented for four other cities in Guangdong on July 28. It will be extended to all other cities in the province by next May.

A department spokesman yesterday said it would extend an 'expeditious immigration system' at the border to speed up the clearance by installing more document-reading machines.

He said six such machines had already been installed at the Lowu crossing to cope with extra tourists from Dongguan, Foshan, Jiangmen and Zhongshan - the first four cities to enjoy the relaxed policy.

The machines will be installed at the side of the yellow line where travellers queue to wait for clearance at the counters.

The first person in the queue behind the yellow line will be able to put travel documents into the machine.

The machines transmit data automatically to the computer of the immigration officer at the counter, cutting the clearance time for each traveller from two minutes to one.

The department has already deployed an extra 94 officers at the border, including 30 officers to form a reaction taskforce to cope with the extra tourists. The taskforce is based in Lowu and will be sent to checkpoints needing extra manpower.

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