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Hong Kong, Dec. 8 (BUS): Hong Kong’s bustling global business hub may be losing its luster among foreign businesses and expats with its strict anti-epidemic rules requiring up to 21 days of quarantine for new arrivals.
The restrictions are discouraging visitors and business travelers alike and adding to other challenges facing the semi-autonomous Chinese territory as Beijing exercises greater control over the former British colony, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Months ago, business circles urged authorities to ease some quarantine restrictions, saying the city risks losing some of its international talent and appeal as a regional financial centre.
Some were outraged when the city granted an exemption from the rules for Jimmy Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who visited the city for about a day in November. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Dimon had been given an exception on the economy and that JPMorgan was “a very large bank with major business in Hong Kong.”
Actress Nicole Kidman was also pardoned when she visited the city to film parts of a TV series about expats, angering critics and local lawmakers over whether celebrities should be allowed in and skip quarantine when Hong Kong residents pay dearly to go home.
Hong Kong’s “COVID-Zero” stance is in line with mainland China’s policy of largely closing its doors to the international world to try to prevent cases from being brought into the country.
Restrictions have been further tightened in light of the new variant of the coronavirus, which has been confirmed in at least four people in the city. Hong Kong authorities have designated about 60 countries as high-risk areas including the United States, Britain, Australia and any country with confirmed cases of Omicron.
For travelers from high-risk areas, only Hong Kong residents are allowed in and must quarantine at their own expense for 21 days at the hotel. Travelers from certain African countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe that have reported locally transmitted oomicron infection must spend seven days at a government facility while undergoing daily testing and then stay for two weeks in a hotel, also at their own expense.
Only travelers from China are largely exempt from quarantine, although those traveling from Hong Kong to most provinces in mainland China must remain isolated for 3 weeks.
Lam, the Hong Kong leader, has stressed her more interest in resuming cross-border travel without quarantine with mainland China than international travel.
Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said prolonged restrictions were hurting Hong Kong’s competitiveness. Many of the city’s chambers of commerce have repeatedly requested that the city reopen to visitors at the earliest opportunity because restrictions make it difficult for businesses to connect with customers and compete internationally.
“We don’t see any public effort to present plans for how Hong Kong can get back on track to open its international borders, and that’s very difficult for businesses,” Joseph said.
Joseph resigned as president of the American Chamber of Commerce last month after failing to get the government to ease coronavirus restrictions, but she has stayed on for six months as the chamber finds her successor.
Frederic Golub, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, wrote an open letter to the Hong Kong government in August, saying the city’s harsh quarantine could “lead many in the international community to question whether they want to remain trapped indefinitely in Hong Kong while the rest of the world is moving forward.”
Many foreigners living in Hong Kong are tired of the restrictions and are considering heading to greener pastures. More than 40 percent of members polled in a recent AMCham poll said they might leave town.
“I think most of the expats in Hong Kong have tried to stay here as long as possible… They really appreciate the job opportunities they have but the travel restrictions and really strict quarantine procedures, have prevented people from seeing their loved ones in their home countries,” said Mark Tibbats, managing director at Employment Agency Michael Page.
He noted the need to take urgent measures to prevent the departure of many qualified professionals.
“I really think that next year, if there are no clear signs that there will be an improvement, or at least a reduction in quarantine restrictions, people will have to make plans where they have to stick to them – especially things like education (for their children),” he said.
Summer Wang, an American expat who arrived in town shortly before the pandemic began, plans to return to the United States before Christmas.
“I knew I would eventually leave Hong Kong for work reasons, but decided to leave sooner due to the 21-day quarantine,” said Wang, who has been in hotel quarantine in the city since the outbreak began.
“Quarantine can be tolerated once or twice, but unless you are willing to remain separated from the family for long and unpredictable periods of time, current quarantine measures are not sustainable,” she said. “I pay to be miserable.”
Some companies in Hong Kong, such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have begun offering to cover employee quarantine costs. A 21-day stay in the city’s cheapest quarantine hotel costs at least $1,200 for one person.
Syed Asim Hussain, one of its partners, said Black Ship Restaurants, a Hong Kong-based restaurant group that serves diverse cuisines, plans to spend about $650,000 to relocate more than 250 of its foreign employees home to see their families and cover the resulting quarantine costs. The founders.
“You know, we do this strange thing of offering hospitality to strangers, taking care of people through food and drink night after night,” Hussain said in an interview. “And I felt that we had to take care of ourselves as well in this difficult environment.”
It hurts financially, but he said he hopes the initiative will “create immeasurable goodwill inside and outside our community.”
Sandeep Arora, a restaurant manager at Black Sheep’s New Punjab Club, said the effort would allow him to visit his hometown of Punjab, India, because paying for tickets, quarantine and testing was beyond his means.
Arora is looking forward to eating his mother’s food, Baigan Bharta – an eggplant dish usually served with roti, and most importantly, seeing his son.
“The main thing is my son – he is growing very fast. He was six years old when I last saw him, and now he is eight.” “Every day is very important…especially for me to be with him as a father.”
MI