'Set Cross-border Quota For Business Sector At 5,000'

The president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, Allen Shi, said on Monday that he hopes the local business sector will be allowed an initial quota of between 5,000 and 6,000 people each day for quarantine-free travel to the mainland.

He made the comment a day after Chief Secretary Eric Chan said the SAR was seeking to reopen the border with the mainland as early as on Sunday, with a quota on the number of travellers in the initial stage.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Shi said while priority should be given to those who have family needs, there’s also an urgent desire for businessmen to return to their factories on the mainland to deal with matters like wage payment.

"In the past, there were 100,000 to 200,000 people crossing the border each day. We hope there can be a daily quota of 20,000 initially, before further increasing to 50,000 or even 100,000. After all, there may be some difficulties in transport facilities as the border has been closed for so long. It's reasonable to increase the quota step by step," Shi said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Federation of Railway Trade Unions, Lam Wai-keung, told the same programme that staff at checkpoint stations have already resumed their duties, such as testing out ticket machines at the stations, ahead of the re-opening.

However, Lam said the redeployment of manpower could lead to staff shortage at other MTR stations.

"There may be a manpower problem. After the border was closed, staff working at checkpoint stations were sent to other stations. Now that the border will be reopened, those staff will be sent back to the checkpoint stations. So the network will be rather short-staffed at other stations," he said.