HONG KONG: Hong Kong may only reopen in early 2024 because of its stringent COVID-19 policies, which could trigger an exodus of foreign firms and staff and jeopardise its role as a financial hub, the city’s European Chamber of Commerce said in a draft report.
The limited effectiveness of locally developed vaccines is forcing mainland China to maintain tight restrictions on travel, the chamber said in the draft which was reviewed by Reuters but has not been made public.
The European Chamber of Commerce declined to comment on the report.
The most likely scenario for Hong Kong would be that it would not reopen until China rolls out its mRNA vaccine across its 1.4 billion population, which could take until late 2023 or early 2024, it said.
If that was the case, the chamber said there was a risk of a “cascade effect” of firms leaving the Asian financial hub.
“We anticipate an exodus of foreigners, probably the largest than Hong Kong has ever seen, and one of the largest in absolute terms from any city in the region in recent history,” it said.
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