Time to reconnect with the world

Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah's hassle-free return from the APEC trade ministers' meeting may have raised some eyebrows.

That's ironic because little attention was given to his business talks in Thailand, including bilateral sessions with his counterparts from Peru and Vietnam.

In 2009, Peru became the first Latin American nation to sign a comprehensive free trade agreement with Beijing.

Instead, there was greater public interest on whether Yau had to spend a week at a designated quarantine hotel, as most others have to do on returning home to Hong Kong.

The answer was obvious: Yau was spared the week-long quarantine transition.

That is the only logical arrangement even though it may be tempting to accuse the government of applying double standards that, while subjecting others - including business executives - to strict rules on returning, government officials are lenient on themselves.

Although that may look undesirable, the question before us is not that Yau was not made to follow the same entry rules of quarantining in a hotel.

Rather, the case should be taken as a chance to review if the local vaccination exercise has achieved enough progress for the strict return rules to ease further, with a view to eventually lifting the quarantine requirement for returning residents and international visitors if they are adequately vaccinated.

That should be the direction to go for rather than trying to find fault in something that is proper.

Having isolated itself from the rest of the world, Hong Kong should be encouraged to increase in-person exchanges with other places. As far as possible, this should be started with government officials to re-establish physical connections lost during the pandemic.

Yau was the first SAR official in two years to embark on an official trip overseas. It would be nice if his attendance at the APEC ministerial meeting marked the beginning of resumption of global exchanges in the pre-pandemic manner.

In view of the enormous progress the city has made in vaccinating the population, the pace of opening up may be accelerated cautiously.

Yesterday, Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, who oversees the city's vaccination drive, reported that almost 90 percent of the local population has been double-vaccinated and over half have had a booster.

If they are confident about the vaccines, government officials should also be confident about the strong defense line that these high vaccination levels have created in the community.

I recall some health experts saying previously that social distancing restrictions may be eased once the vaccination rate reached 90 percent.

There is no question that Hong Kong is making steady progress in vaccination, with 90 percent being an extremely high level.

If considered purely from a public health point of view and without political considerations, there should be nothing to stop the SAR from opening up further in order to reconnect with the rest of the world.

Yau's APEC trip and his subsequent quarantine-exempt homecoming may mark the beginning of the end of Hong Kong's self-isolation.

This should be encouraged, not discouraged.