Hong Kong in talks with Beijing to ease cross-border data flow as new rules threaten city’s gateway status

  • New rules finalised by China earlier this month require some companies to pass a security assessment before moving data out of the mainland
  • Hong Kong officials are advocating for a mechanism that bans data coming from the mainland from leaving the city, to ease Beijing’s concerns

Hong Kong officials say they are communicating with mainland authorities to ease data flow from the mainland to the special administrative region. Photo: Sam Tsang
The Hong Kong government has initiated talks with the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to make it easier for data to be transferred from the mainland to the city, as Beijing’s new restrictions on cross-border data flow raise questions about Hong Kong’s status as a regional hub.

Hong Kong’s Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau (ITIB) had “started a dialogue” with the CAC, Allen Yeung, founding chairman of the Institute of Big Data Governance (iBDG), an organisation in Hong Kong that aims to promote best data practices among industry members, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

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