US businesses say that lobbying Hong Kong authorities about reopening its borders with the rest of the world has been fruitless, a sign of frustration with the territory’s “COVID Zero” strategy that could undermine its future as a global financial hub.
American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong president Tara Joseph on Thursday said that her organization has raised concerns to the authorities in multiple ways, without any response.
Even though major companies are not packing up and leaving Hong Kong, foreign residents and businesses are having a difficult time with strict quarantine rules, including attracting talent and weighing relocating departments or operations, she said in an interview.
“We’ve tried along with the other chambers, we’ve been open about these concerns in a variety of fashions and we haven’t heard back,” she said. “We’re at the point where it just feels like we’re talking to a wall. So we’ve stopped writing letters at this point.”
The trade group’s concerns are the latest sign of growing unease among foreign residents and businesses about Hong Kong’s approach of eliminating COVID-19 cases locally — a strategy that most countries aside from China have abandoned — while concentrating efforts on reopening the border with mainland China.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Government yesterday said that its COVID-19 policy would become increasingly tethered to China’s, and that the territory must continue with its policy to eliminate infections, including strict quarantine requirements.
“Although we have different systems, our common expectation is that — under the collective prevention and control scheme — we must become more and more aligned,” Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan (陳肇始) told a media briefing.
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