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The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, has a better understanding of the busy cross-boundary traffic and how the Immigration Department uses advanced technology to cope with the traffic, following a visit to Lok Ma Chau control point today (April 19).
He also learned that the department has fully prepared for the impending Labour Day holidays rush. Measures include stationing additional staff at control points and activating the Joint Command Centre to monitor passenger flow.
Accompanied by the Director of Immigration, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, Mr Tsang visited the Automatic Passenger Clearance (APC) annex and the Automatic Vehicle Clearance (AVC) kiosks where he was introduced to the operation of self-service arrival and departure immigration clearance through fingerprint recognition and smart-card technology.
"Given that Hong Kong is a strategic gateway to the Pan-Pearl River Delta region and the rapid socio-economic development in the region, our cross-boundary traffic will continue to grow," Mr Tsang said. "Our Immigration colleagues have to handle nearly 200 million travellers a year so the department has worked hard to introduce state-of-the-art technology in enhancing service delivery at all fronts."
"We all know that an efficient immigration control plays a significant role in Hong Kong's long-term competitiveness as a metropolitan city and I am confident that our officers will continue to demonstrate their professionalism to help maintain the prosperity of Hong Kong and facilitate the cross-boundary movements of Hong Kong people," he said.
To meet the fast-growing passenger and vehicular traffic in recent years, the Immigration Department, since late 2004, has been phasing in the APC and AVC systems, also known as e-channels, at various control points.
To date, 194 e-channels have been brought into operation at various control points to provide self-service immigration clearance for Hong Kong permanent residents and holders of valid Documents of Identity for Visa Purpose aged 11 or above and holding smart identity cards. There were another 26 vehicular e-channels for drivers of cross-boundary vehicles.
Before ending his visit, Mr Tsang met Immigration frontline staff working at the boundary control points and representatives of staff unions and associations. Staff representatives shared with Mr Tsang the challenges they faced in striving for excellence while cross-boundary vehicular and passenger traffic increased each year.
"Despite their heavy responsibilities in the face of voluminous passenger flow, I am happy to see that immigration staff make every effort possible to carry out their duties with the utmost professionalism," Mr Tsang said.
He praised the frontline staff for their dedication to maintaining a smooth flow of traffic, day and night, and their efforts in upholding security.
Ends/Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:52
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