'Exemptions For Executives Needed For Recovery'

Allowing fully vaccinated senior executives of listed companies to skip quarantine when they come to Hong Kong is important for the city’s economic revival, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of an Executive Council meeting, Lam said the policy was “not a free for all”, and regulators need to be convinced that these executives have a “genuine business purpose”.

She said Hong Kong had to consider the recovery of the city’s economy, and the important role played by the financial services sector.

"So the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau, in consultation with the regulatory authorities, have proposed that we should provide an alternative arrangement for these senior executives to come so that they can continue to conduct the very essential economic activities in Hong Kong,” Lam said.

She also pointed out that they are not allowed to go anywhere they please while in the SAR.

"They're subject to another set of, I'd still call it, quarantine arrangements, which restricts their behaviour and activities," Lam said.

"They have to stay at one designated spot, and they have to travel to another designated spot, for example to attend meetings, consult lawyers for their IPOs... they couldn't go out to the community at all."

Lam stressed this is not a new exemption policy, saying, for example, that scientists and producers of medical protective gear also enjoy such treatment.