Asian Angle | As Beijing eases zero-Covid, can Hong Kong get ahead of the curve and scrap remaining rules?

  • Hong Kong’s economy has suffered as a result of clinging to Covid-19 restrictions far longer than necessary, in contrast to regional rival Singapore
  • Without clear directions from Beijing, Hong Kong might struggle to adapt to a different Covid-19 strategy, undermining its efforts to regain economic competitiveness

People lie in hospital beds outside the Caritas Medical Centre in Hong Kong in February 2022. Photo: AFP
With mainland China rapidly easing up on its dynamic zero-Covid policy, the critical question confronting Hong Kong now is whether it wants to get ahead of the curve by removing most (if not all) of its remaining Covid restrictions. Failure to do so may well leave Hong Kong as the last jurisdiction in the world in 2023 to still have pandemic restrictions from 2020.
There is little doubt that Covid restrictions in Hong Kong have delayed, quite unnecessarily, the economic recovery that should have occurred in the second half of the year, if not earlier. In the third quarter of the year, Hong Kong’s economy shrank by a shocking 4.5 per cent compared to a year ago. This comes after two consecutive quarters of contraction (of -3.9 per cent in the first quarter and of -1.3 per cent in the second quarter). In contrast, Singapore’s economy grew by 4.4 per cent in the third quarter, after rising 4.4 per cent and 3.8 per cent in the first and second quarters respectively.
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