China intends to ease travel bans from nine countries, including the US, UK and Australia, and allow these travelers to be quarantined at a hotel for seven days instead of 14. Changes will be made to effective April 1. “It’s very important to meet the needs of international entrepreneurs, but we also have a very large population in Hong Kong that needs to ease the border restriction to mainland China, because that’s also a very important part. “Hong Kong for family reunification and business as well,” Bernard Chan, executive director of conference, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday. “So it’s a very tough balancing act,” he said, especially as China continues to see pockets of Covid hearths. The Hong Kong Executive Council is a cabinet-like body that advises the city’s managing director. China is battling Covid’s worst outbreak since early 2020, with local governments blaming the new Omicron BA.2 variant for the current wave sweeping across the country. Shanghai’s largest city kicked off a two-stage lockdown on Monday.

CNBC Health & Science

Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic: Hong Kong has firmly adhered to a “zero zero” policy on coronavirus, as in mainland China, seeking to eliminate all cases with sweeping restrictions and quarantine. The city reported 7,685 new Covid cases on Monday and 168 deaths, according to official figures, as the latest wave of micron-borne infections continues to decline. Between March 22 and 28, an average of 4,217.4 cases per day were reported, down from the average of 8,704.4 cases per day reported in the previous 7 days, according to government figures. However, Hong Kong lags behind its regional counterparts – especially Singapore’s rival economic hub, which said last Thursday it would lift almost all border restrictions on vaccinated travelers from next month.
“As the rest of the world opens up, we have to try to find a way out,” Chan said. “Starting April 1, we are starting to reduce the quarantine time in hotels from 14 days to 7 days. Obviously, it is not good enough, but it is still a big improvement,” he added.

Covid affects the state of the business hub

According to a recent report by the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, the city’s zero-sum strategy Covid “has very high costs for the Hong Kong business community.” The survey found that 49% of companies surveyed said they were considering relocating all or part of their offices within the next 12 months. In addition, existing restrictions have hampered the corporate strategy or recruitment plans for 2 out of 3 companies in Hong Kong, the report added. Acknowledging that “these are difficult times” for Hong Kong, Chan said he was confident the city would regain its position as a global business hub when the pandemic ended. “I think Covid will end. It’s a matter of when it will end,” he said. “Hong Kong is still very attractive as the center of the Great Bay of China and China’s economy continues to grow. I think people will come back.”