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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (May 24) :
Question:
Regarding private cars of Hong Kong crossing the boundary, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows if the number of private cars of Hong Kong which were granted boundary-crossing licences has increased over the past three years;
(b) given that the Guangdong authorities have stipulated that Hong Kong businessmen have to make an industrial/commercial investment of over US$1 million in non-mountainous regions of the Guangdong Province before they may apply for a private car boundary-crossing licence, whether it will negotiate with the Guangdong authorities to relax this requirement; if not, of the reasons for that; and
(c) whether simplified arrangements will be provided for private cars of Hong Kong with boundary-crossing licences to cross the boundary?
Reply:
Madam President,
By the end of April 2006, around 11,500 Hong Kong private cars were allowed to enter and leave the Mainland, representing a 34% increase from around 8,600 as at end of April 2003.
According to the agreement between the governments of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong, quotas for Hong Kong private cars to enter and leave the Mainland are mainly issued to persons with business need to travel between the two places. The Guangdong authorities require an applicant to invest more than US$1 million (HK$/RMB 8 million) in non-mountainous areas in Guangdong or US$400,000 (HK$/RMB 3.2 million) in mountainous areas. We have recently discussed with Guangdong the feasibility of relaxing the investment requirement. Guangdong considers that even under the existing eligibility criteria, an applicant has to wait for quite some time before he can obtain a quota. It is therefore not opportune to relax the criteria, lest this would further lengthen the waiting time. Both sides, however, agree to discuss the feasibility of relaxing the criteria again after the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor.
We have often endeavoured to introduce appropriate and practicable measures to simplify the cross border procedures for vehicles and enhance clearance efficiency. For example, we have introduced the Automated Vehicle Clearance System at Man Kam To, Sha Tau Kok and Lok Ma Chau control points in phases. In addition, eight additional kiosks, which are newly designed to provide a "one-stop" immigration and customs clearance at the same kiosk, have been commissioned at Lok Ma Chau. During busy hours, the frontline departments would also take into account the traffic flow and turn some goods vehicles kiosks into private cars kiosks to facilitate clearance of private cars.
Ends/Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:30
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