Coronavirus Hong Kong: quarantine-free travel to mainland China could resume in second half of year, ‘everything in order’ with stock market, finance chief says

Hong Kong’s finance chief has said quarantine-free travel with mainland China could resume in the second half of this year, while also reassuring the public the city’s stock market has been functioning normally despite a huge plunge on Tuesday.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po attributed the recent tumble to a correction in tech stocks and heightened risk-aversion sentiment in the market, adding that everything was in order as the government had already looked into different market elements.

Speaking at a Redefining Hong Kong seminar organised by the Post on Wednesday, Chan also signalled that the government was ready to resume business with the international community, as a high-level summit in November was being planned.

But Chan said the government’s most important task was taming the current wave of infections by bringing the city’s situation in line with the mainland’s “dynamic zero infection” approach, before travel could return and businesses could operate fully again.

“We hope we will be able to put the pandemic under control in the coming two to three months … Aligning our practices with the mainland will enable us to [restart] the quarantine-free travelling with the mainland,” Chan said.

“That is a target that we are working very hard towards at the moment. It would hopefully be in the second half of this year, depending on how fast the current wave of the pandemic could be put under control, and [on] the Covid situation on the mainland.”