Hong Kong, Thailand establish special travel arrangement

It aims to explore relaxation measures to resume cross-boundary business exchange.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB) and the Thailand Board of Investment will jointly set up a special travel arrangement for cross-border control with five economies, including Hong Kong, in relaxing its inbound passenger control, a press release announced.

A newly established interdepartmental team will start discussing with the relevant departments in the Thai Government in the coming week or two.

"If the special relaxation arrangements for cross-border control can be established between the two places, cross-boundary business exchange can be gradually resumed for Hong Kong, which is set to give a tremendous boost to our economic recovery," the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Edward Yau, said. "For the past five years, an average of nearly 900 000 Hong Kong people have visited Thailand every year whilst over 500,000 Thai visitors have come to Hong Kong.”

Yau added that the discussion between the two sides will be based on science and aims to formulate simple and practical operation procedures with appropriate health control and protocol. The relevant discussion will touch on details of the relaxation measures for cross-border control, specific operation arrangements to reduce the risks of spreading the virus across the borders, the provision of transport services and more.

The interdepartmental team will be led by the Commissioner for Tourism and comprise representatives from bureaux and departments, such as the Food and Health Bureau, the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Department of Health, etc.

The partnership was announced during a webinar titled "Resilience Strategy: Thailand-Hong Kong Partnership" last 29 June.