16,000 Hongkongers with foreign passports approved for multi-entry mainland travel permit

Finance chief Paul Chan shares data as he cites benefits of expanded trade deal with mainland granting special treatment to city’s enterprises, talent

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The travel permit scheme for permanent residents with foreign passports was announced earlier this year. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 1:25pm, 13 Oct 2024Updated: 9:13pm, 13 Oct 2024

About 16,000 Hong Kong permanent residents with foreign passports have already received a new five-year, multi-entry mainland Chinese travel permit, accounting for a third of all applicants since the scheme launched in July.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po shared the figure in his weekly blog on Sunday as he pointed out the benefits of a recently expanded free-trade deal with the mainland that would grant more preferential treatment to Hong Kong enterprises and talent.

Last week, the minister and mainland authorities signed off on amendments to the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa), relaxing qualification requirements for Hong Kong professionals working across the border, as well as lifting curbs on shareholding and business activities in the north.

Discussing the five-year, multi-entry permit scheme, Chan said the China Travel Service (Hong Kong) agency had received about 48,000 applications as of early October.

One-third, or 16,000 applicants, were issued a travel permit by the mainland’s Exit and Entry Administration over the same period, he noted.

Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said last Sunday that more than 61,000 people had applied for a document needed to obtain the travel permit.