Leaders of Hong Kong's European business community have called for urgent talks with the central government to sort out the difficulties foreign businesspeople now face in travelling to the mainland.
The European Chamber of Commerce wrote to the Commissioner's Office of the Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Monday seeking a meeting with senior officials to thrash out solutions to the travel problems. It also sent a letter to the Hong Kong government about the issue.
The chamber is seeking action over the halt to the issuing of multiple-entry visas - which travel agents were told about on March 27 - and the suspension on April 1 of short-visit visas to Shenzhen, which were previously issued at the border.
European Chamber of Commerce chairman Rafael Gil-Tienda said the chambers of the 11 European countries it represented were unanimous in their concerns, and it had been 'very, very easy' for them to draft a joint position.
'This is absolutely a matter of concern for the chambers of the various European countries and their members,' he said. 'Individual members have complained to their chambers that it is now more cumbersome, costly and difficult to enter China to do business.
'It is affecting the integration of Hong Kong into the Pearl River Delta, and it is affecting Hong Kong as an entrepot of tourists into China. We believe it is harming our members.
'It is affecting people who live in Hong Kong and go into China frequently - from the senior chief executive of a company, to the more administrative or lower-level rank and file.'
