Calls To Boost Mainland Travel In Policy Blueprint

An NGO has called on the Chief Executive John Lee to prioritise resuming quarantine-free travel with the mainland in his maiden Policy Address on Wednesday.

The call was among a raft of measures proposed by the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), which petitioned outside the government headquarters in Tamar on Sunday.

Sze Lai-shan, the society's deputy director, said the pandemic has made life very difficult for those who work or have families across the border in the past few years.

"It's related to their job. Some of them even have their materials on the mainland. With the [restricted] border, it's really hard to transport the materials and they cannot work," she said.

"They have some elderly family [members] on the mainland, they are sick and they need to take care of them. Actually they're very concerned whether the border will be opened. If the border is closed and they need to be quarantined, they don't have money to pay for the hotel. There are many difficulties."

Sze also urged the chief executive to address the housing needs of low-income families, such as boosting public housing supply and shortening the waiting time, and set up a key performance indicator (KPI).

"We are concerned with the needs of the underprivileged. Many of them are living in subdivided flats, and the living condition is very poor. They have been waiting for a public housing flat for a long time. They request the chief executive to have a KPI, for example the waiting time should be three years," she said.

The average wait for a public housing unit now stands at six years.