Hong Kong fund managers’ lobby group urges incoming Chief Executive John Lee to drop quarantine rules

The city’s financial industry has been “battered” by the quarantine measures, said Sally Wong Chi-ming, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association, which represents firms with more than US$52 trillion in assets under management, in an email to Bloomberg News.

“The longer we are stuck in this restrictive mode, the more we are reducing our relevance and competitiveness in the international arena,” Wong said.

Loosely following mainland China’s zero-Covid approach, Hong Kong mandates a seven-day quarantine for incoming travellers even as rival centres such as Singapore, London and New York have dropped all restrictions. The city has seen an outflow of tens of thousands of residents, including bankers and finance industry professionals who have chafed at the strict social distancing and quarantine rules.

Signs have mounted recently that officials have grown concerned. The city has drifted from President Xi Jinping’s strict Covid policy of eliminating the virus in recent months, resisting tightening curbs even as it has seen more than 800 daily infections. Even the outgoing leader, Carrie Lam, said last week that the travel restrictions have undermined the city’s status as a finance hub.