Coronavirus: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she expects reopening of border with mainland China to enable ‘mass events’ by February
- Lam tells business leaders she hopes cross-border flow of people will be high enough for government to stage major events marking Greater Bay Area anniversary
- Gradual resumption of quarantine-free travel being discussed between Hong Kong and mainland, but movement will initially be limited to within Guangdong province
Hong Kong’s leader has said she expects quarantine-free travel between the city and mainland China to reach such a level by February next year to enable the government to hold major events attended by businesspeople based either side of the border.
Speaking a day after the Post revealed that a preliminary reopening of the border could come as early as next month, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Friday the most pressing matter was for Hong Kong’s business community to be able to take commercial trips to the mainland without undergoing quarantine.
A large forum bringing together businesspeople from across southern China is among the events the government hopes to stage in early 2022 as a way of marking the anniversary of the formulation of the bay area’s development framework.
On Thursday, Beijing confirmed that both sides had reached “significant consensus” over reopening their border.
“Both sides met each other halfway and the full reopening of the border is progressing in an orderly manner,” a spokesman for the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said.