Pereira Coutinho wants access to Hengqin without discrimination

Lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho wants authorities to allow all permanent residents of Macau to have the same access to the Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, irrespective of their nationality. Pereira Coutinho made the announcement during a spoken inquiry delivered yesterday in the period before the agenda at the Legislative Assembly.

The issue relates to the fact that only residents of Chinese nationality with an Exit-Entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau, commonly known as a Two-way Permit, can easily cross the border between Macau and the Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.

Pereira Coutinho notes that this blatantly discriminates against those permanent residents who do not have a Two-way Permit. Permanent residents without the permit cannot, among other things, access the new apartments of the new Macau neighborhood in Hengqin.

Without possessing a Two-way Permit, residents of Macau are forced to cross the border using their passports – for which they also need to have a visa. These prerequisites make the process of crossing the border for work, study and other activities very complex, time-consuming, and costly, particularly if there is a need to cross daily.

Pereira Coutinho noted that although banking institutions, such as the Bank of China and Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU), are conceding loans for the acquisition of housing units in Hengqin for those not in possession of a Two-way Permit, the Macau Urban Renewal Company, tasked with overseeing the development, has said that it cannot promise that border procedures will be eased for those buyers who do not have a permit.

The lawmaker complained of discrimination, adding that although the government had announced families can also recruit or transfer their quotas of domestic workers to Hengqin, there is no regulation or information on how to do this.