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Mainland tourists visit Golden Bauhinia Square during the National Day golden week. The existing individual visit scheme lets mainlanders from 49 cities enter Hong Kong without joining tour groups. Photo: Nora Tam

Ideas on curbing cross-border entry 'won't materialise soon'

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and central government officials meeting in Beijing this week are not likely to arrive at any concrete ideas on how to limit visitor numbers from the mainland, it has emerged.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and central government officials meeting in Beijing this week are not likely to arrive at any concrete ideas on how to limit visitor numbers from the mainland, it has emerged.

The issue would take time to sort out, meaning immediate policy changes were unlikely, according to a Hong Kong government source close to the matter.

Leung himself said yesterday that any Hong Kong plans to restrict or reduce the number of entries into the city would need the consent of the central and relevant provincial authorities.

"Everyone should know it is not easy to limit existing rights enjoyed by [mainland] residents," he said in Beijing, after declaring his intention last week to float the possibility of tightening the rules while in the capital.

Leung said the existing individual visit scheme had yet to come up in talks with mainland officials, but he would raise the issue before leaving on Friday.

The government source, meanwhile, told the : "There won't be a quick fix. Both sides are unlikely to reach a concrete deal during the chief executive's visit."

The scheme lets mainlanders from 49 cities enter Hong Kong without joining tour groups. In particular, Shenzhen's permanent residents enjoy unlimited trips on multiple-entry permits not granted to the other 48 cities.

The Democratic Party is proposing to the government that Shenzhen residents be allowed only eight trips a year in order to shut out parallel-goods traders. That cap was the choice of 45 per cent of 737 people in a party poll.

It also suggests levying a border-crossing tax of HK$20 to HK$50, freezing the number of eligible cities and developing border shopping arcades.

Leung said he would not meet President Xi Jinping or Premier Li Keqiang. "It's a convention the president and premier do not meet the chief executives of Hong Kong and Macau in a formal meeting during the annual sessions of the National People's Congress, except in the years that see new central leadership taking the helm."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Ideas on curbing border entry 'still some way off'
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