Despite both Macau and Hong Kong being part of the same country, travellers between the two cities and indeed anywhere in the Pearl River Delta, have to endure an agonisingly slow immigration control system, with officers laboriously tapping the details on each identity card into a computer. It is now feasible to encode all the information on an identity card on a magnetic strip so the traveller swipes his card as he enters the immigration hall. The long lines of frustrated travellers in immigration queues would then be a thing of the past if such a card was introduced and the Pearl River estuary could be opened up to businessmen and tourists, resulting in a significant increase in business throughout the region. TED THOMAS Central
