Lee to push HK story in the Middle East

Stacy Shi

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu will take his good Hong Kong stories to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on business trips next month to strengthen investment, trade and cultural exchange with the two Middle East countries.

He says he expects Hong Kong's economy to return to a growth track with visitor numbers picking up significantly as the government rolls out international promotional schemes, including a "Hello Hong Kong" campaign to lure tourists back to the SAR.

During the visit to Saudi and the Emirates, Lee said he will attend trade and cultural promotion activities and meet with senior officials and business people to seize the opportunity to strengthen ties in trade, investment and culture.

Besides overseas visits, as the border reopened between Hong Kong and the mainland, Lee said he will visit Guangdong as soon as possible to exchange views with leaders in the province and the cities in the Greater Bay Area to jointly promote the development of Greater Bay.

He will also attend the Boao Forum at the end of March. Lee said a series of sports, cultural events as well as international conferences and exhibitions will be held in the coming months to spread the important message that "Hong Kong is back to normal."

"At the beginning of next month, there will be a series of large-scale 'Hello Hong Kong' publicity campaigns. We will promote Hong Kong to the international arena that we have resumed normalcy," he told lawmakers at a question-and- answer session in the Legislative Council yesterday.

Meanwhile, tourism sector lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung and industry representatives urged authorities to launch a HK$100 million fund to revive business.

Yiu believes that the industry needs time to redevelop after three years of hiatus during Covid-19 outbreaks and many workers have left the industry for good, adding authorities should offer additional assistance.

The executive director of the Travel Industry Council, Fanny Yeung Shuk-fan, predicted that it would take at least one year for the industry to resume normal operations. She echoed Yiu's call that authorities should allocate HK$100 million to help the sector replenish manpower loss and even expand the work force in the future.

Although Lee announced that the isolation order for newly confirmed Covid patients will be lifted from January 30, the Travel Industry Council chair, Gianna Hsu Wong Mei-lun, said it is not enough to lure tourists back to Hong Kong.

She urged authorities to lift the 48-hour PCR test requirement on mainland visitors, or at least replace it with a negative rapid test result, because many PCR test centers on the mainland have been closed.