Provincial governor says a timetable will be set for the plan to be introduced
A date is to be set to allow residents from Fujian province to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis, provincial leaders said yesterday.
Governor Lu Zhangong said after a meeting with Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, Henry Tang Ying-yen, that a timetable would be set, adding that the central government would extend the measure to other provinces.
Vice-Governor Wang Meixiang said they had asked the central government to allow people from the province to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis as soon as possible. She expected the scheme to be introduced in several cities before being extending it to the whole province.
'Hong Kong is a small city and there is a limit to its capacity for accommodating tourists,' she said after meeting Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan.
In the past month, residents from eight cities in Guangdong have been allowed to visit Hong Kong without having to join tour groups.
The new measure is scheduled to be extended to Beijing and Shanghai next Monday. About 150,000 tourists from Fujian arrived in Hong Kong last year.