Corporate executives offered ‘fast track’ while tourists are bumped
TOKYO/SINGAPORE — Corporate Asia is spearheading a cautious opening of regional travel after a series of governments prioritized business trips to try to reboot economic activity amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Hong Kong’s decision to ease travel for directors of some 480 listed companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the latest example. The city on Monday said two executives from these companies will be exempt from Hong Kong’s mandatory quarantine for one trip per month from mainland China for “essential business activities,” including board meetings and seeing clients.
Singapore has also opened up a channel with Beijing for corporate employees to travel to six Chinese cities, along the lines of a scheme used by South Korea, which was able to dispatch a large delegation from Samsung Electronics last month. Taiwan has also started to draft measures to ease business travel for foreigners, while Japan is expected to put business travelers at the head of the line when it relaxes curbs on visits by foreigners.
Businesses are welcoming the fact that governments are prioritizing their interests as they create “travel bubbles.” They are also pressing for additional relaxations.
“Singapore companies are hoping that more Chinese cities will be added to the list soon,” said Ho Meng Kit, CEO of the Singapore Business Federation. “Reinstating more flight routes between Singapore and China and at affordable rates will allow more flexibility for businesses to resume their overseas business operations.”
The measures are particularly critical for small, open economies such as Singapore and Hong Kong, which rely heavily on their role as regional corporate crossroads to foment business activity.
For governments, easing restrictions for business travelers provides a relatively controllable way to ease into more widely opening their borders.
Any easing for business is still likely to be gradual and partial. In the case of Hong Kong, travelers to mainland China will still be subject to a 14-day compulsory quarantine requirement imposed by Chinese authorities. The Hong Kong government is working with Beijing to remove this requirement.
“Even though quarantine is exempt in Hong Kong, we will need to be quarantined on the mainland when we return,” said Gui Sheng Yue, chief executive officer and executive director at Geely Automobile Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed arm of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.
Singaporean companies have started applying for “fast lane” essential travel to six cities, including Shanghai and Tianjin. Employees can secure a quarantine waiver if they test negative for the virus and follow certain rules. Passengers who win government approval must pay for and pass the coronavirus test twice, before departure and after landing. The same scheme works for Chinese companies sending employees to Singapore.
Kurt Wee, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, which has a membership of nearly 10,000 small businesses, said China is key for members.
“It is very important we start this air traffic bubble,” he said. “China is an important market — businesses procure from China, invest in China, have staff in China, so there is a need to travel there.”
But Wee pointed out that even under the fast-lane arrangement, business travelers from Singapore will nevertheless be issued with a 14-day stay-at-home mandate after returning from China.
South Korea launched its fast-track program with China on May 1, with large companies already taking advantage of it. Samsung said about 300 employees visited China on May 22 by using the fast-track program. Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong used it to visit memory chip production lines in Xian and meet with Chinese Communist Party leaders in Shaanxi Province.