Gov’t aims to increase border mobility

The Chief Executive (CE), Ho Iat Seng, has indicated the easing of border restrictions with neighboring regions as the only way to tackle the growing problems that are affecting local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
In a response to an inquiry from lawmaker Wang Sai Man during Tuesday’s plenary session of the Legislative Assembly, the CE said, “The Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) is on many occasions one obstacle to the mobility of the visitors. We need to consider ways to ease the restrictions and at this moment we are negotiating with the authorities of Guangdong [province] to see if we can have some trial runs of the ease on mobility,” adding that among such measures would be the mutual recognition of NAT and vaccines.
The CE added that this process is slightly delayed because of the need to complete enough immunization against Covid-19 in Macau, urging residents to get vaccinated as fast as possible.
Ho also said that the government is working on promotional activities aiming to bring more visitors to Macau as soon as there is sufficient local immunization against the virus.
“We are working on promotions and benefits to tourists to visit Macau, namely in Hangzhou and also in other provinces of the Southeast of the country and other regions. We will attract them through benefits in the acquisition of air tickets and also accommodation and others. This is a work that we will do for sure,” he said.
To revitalize the sectors in which local SMEs are prevalent, the CE said that the only way is to “clear” the border restrictions with Hong Kong.
“We know that Hong Kong visitors [are] the ones that contribute [more] to the local SMEs, especially the souvenir shops and others. We need to see how can we ‘unclog’ the mobility between Macau and Hong Kong because we are 30 minutes away from Hong Kong but there 14 days of quarantine between [the] SARs.”