Amcham chief quits over HK's Covid stance

American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong president Tara Joseph, is resigning as she cannot appeal to the administration to ease Covid-19 restrictions even as she faces going into quarantine herself.

Officials have come under much pressure to open borders or risk losing executives and investment amid some of the world's strictest quarantine rules, which some fear could undercut Hong Kong as a global financial center.

"It is not in my nature to advocate on something and then embark on quarantine like a stooge," said Joseph, currently in the United States and who would go into three weeks of hotel quarantine upon a return.

Hong Kong's stance, she said, "should appeal to people who don't mind its new normal and see opportunities. American companies have a lot to navigate but there is always potential in Hong Kong."

Joseph, a former Reuters journalist, has appealed to the administration on behalf of chamber members to ease its quarantine rules.

She will stay at the helm for six months while Amcham finds a new president.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of investment bank JPMorgan Chase, who was in Hong Kong on Monday - and exempted from quarantine under rules for certain executives - said he believed the SAR's Covid-19 rules made it tougher to retain staff.

Despite few local coronavirus cases in recent months, Hong Kong authorities have tightened quarantine rules in an attempt to convince Beijing to allow cross-border travel.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said opening the border with the mainland is her priority.

And to help achieve cross-border travel by February Hong Kong has scrapped most of its quarantine exemptions.

Non-Hong Kong residents who have not been fully vaccinated will be barred from entering the SAR from today.

And New Zealand - the only country listed as low risk - will be reclassified as medium risk.

The European Chamber of Commerce said last month that companies were discussing relocating staff from Hong Kong, also blaming the SAR's zero infection strategy - a line that almost every country apart from China is abandoning.

Chamber chairman Frederik Gollob remarked: "You can't really avoid it, looking at the restrictions."