Editorial | Hong Kong border reopenings rest on balancing risks and rewards
- The government is right to hold out the prospect of a relaxation in travel restrictions following a warning Hong Kong may lose mainland business partners for good
If any evidence were needed that Hong Kong has reached a pivotal moment in the pandemic balancing act between public health constraints and an all-out drive for economic recovery, it is to be found at the Post’s annual China Conference.
The agenda may have included a wide range of hot growth topics, but it was the case for border reopening and quarantine easing for business that dominated the conference’s opening day.
That is only to be expected, given recovery in a world of global supply chains is ultimately dependent on cross-border partnerships, especially with the mainland, and uninhibited deal-making. Access and mobility are therefore paramount.
Border closures and irksome quarantine requirements do nothing for either.
But conference participants were probably not expecting two heavyweights to focus on the urgency of economic opening up. Delivering the keynote address, former chief executive Leung Chun-ying said border closures had forced Hong Kong’s mainland business partners to use substitutes for more than a year, to the point where the city was in danger of losing them for good.