The divide between Asia’s two main financial hubs in handling the pandemic is growing ever wider. (PHOTO: PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)
By Iain Marlow and Shirley Zhao
(Bloomberg) —The divide between Asia’s two main financial hubs in handling the pandemic is growing ever wider, with one opening up to global travel and the other maintaining one of the world’s harshest quarantine policies.
In Singapore, officials are taking steps to reconnect with the global economy even as the government faces pressure to favour locals over foreigners for well-paying jobs. Speaking in a televised address over the weekend, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore can’t stay “locked down and closed off indefinitely” and residents should prepare to see “many Covid-19 cases for some time to come.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has taken the opposite approach, stressing in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday that even a single death would be a “major concern” as she follows China’s Covid Zero approach that tolerates no local infections. While expressing concern about the city’s reputation, Lam said she was “duty bound to protect my people” and businesses in any case saw Hong Kong as a gateway to the mainland.
The divergence is raising questions about Hong Kong’s future as a regional hub, particularly among an expat business community that for years has bounced back-and-forth between the former British colonies known for low tax rates, friendly labor laws and easy immigration policies. Even fully vaccinated residents in Hong Kong face a mandatory 21-day hotel stay if they visit locations like the U.S. and U.K., while Singapore is starting to allow quarantine-free travel to those places and more.
A Facebook post on Saturday captured the ennui many are feeling in Hong Kong. In a group with 55,000 members to support those stuck in quarantine, one member wrote that the city’s restaurants, bars, beaches and hiking trails were getting monotonous, and many residents who see life returning to normal in Europe or the U.S. often don’t want to come back.
“I was born here and have lived in this beautiful city for 36 years, but I can’t go on anymore. I can’t take it,” the person wrote in the post, which had more than 1,000 likes and nearly 500 comments as of Monday afternoon. “The thing is if there was any semblance of hope — on X date we will open up — then the atmosphere here would be buzzing. But the feeling is there is no hope or end in sight.”
Hong Kong’s strict travel policies show just how much its leaders are keen to impress Beijing, which has moved to eliminate dissent following sometimes-violent pro-democracy protests in 2019. But quarantines are required even for travel to the mainland and there’s no clear criteria for easing restrictions, leaving the business community with nowhere to go that doesn’t involve a lengthy time locked in a hotel room.
Danny Lau, who runs a factory in Guangdong province across the China border that manufactures construction materials mostly for U.S. clients, said “Hong Kong could easily be taken over by Singapore” as Asia’s international financial hub if it continues with its Covid Zero policy.
“We of course welcome the Singapore model because it’s very difficult to eradicate Covid,” said Lau, who serves as honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association. “There may still be cases after five years. Are you going to close the border for five years?”
Lam and other Hong Kong officials say the policies are popular with the public and have worked in suppressing the virus: The city has seen less than 12,300 cases and only 213 deaths throughout the entire pandemic. Disputing accusations that Hong Kong can’t autonomously set policy, Lam said Monday the city was doing “very well” as a financial center. Last week she said the mainland was “more important” than international business.
But the travel policies are adding to concerns for businesses in Hong Kong, which were already facing a China-backed clampdown on free speech, questions about the independence of the judiciary and an education system now focused on patriotism.
Hong Kong saw a record outflow of 89,200 residents in the year that ended in June, while the latest annual government survey showed the number of U.S.-based firms in the city fell for a third straight year to 1,267 — down 6.2% from 2018. And while the overall number of companies with foreign parents has risen to a record of 9,049 this year — a statistic Lam cited on Monday as a sign of the city’s competitiveness — data show the increases have come mostly from China.
In one survey, the American Chamber of Commerce said more than 40% of its members were considering leaving the city. Amcham’s president, Tara Joseph, told Bloomberg News last week that lobbying the Hong Kong government to reopen was like “talking to a wall.”
“We’re looking toward the second Christmas in a row when not many families will be traveling home, and that doesn’t help the overall confidence of decision makers in Hong Kong,” said Frederik Gollob, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. He said many companies were discussing measures short of moving their businesses, including relocating people to the mainland or moving certain jobs to other places like Singapore.
That may not be so easy. Singapore has toughened up its immigration policies, increasing scrutiny of banks, fund managers, management consultancies and other firms suspected of “discriminatory hiring practices” that pass over locals for foreigners. In August, Prime Minister Lee pledged to tighten restrictions on foreign workers and raise wages for low-income labourers as the city-state recovers from a pandemic-induced recession.
Singapore has also seen its population drop for a second consecutive year, primarily due to an exodus of foreign workers, students and residents amid tight Covid controls.
Still, the Hong Kong business community is worried. Felix Chung, a pro-establishment lawmaker who represents the textile industry in the Legislative Council, said Hong Kong “cannot disconnect with the rest of the world” if it’s going to be an international financial center.
“Singapore, as a rival to Hong Kong, will definitely take the chance to grab as many of our businesses as possible,” he said. “It’s a threat to Hong Kong.”
Saturday's announcement sparked a surge in travel demand that temporarily crashed the Singapore Airlines website and had travel agencies working at full tilt over the weekend.
SIA said there is strong demand for its VTL flights, but declined to reveal any figures due to commercial sensitivity.
Mr Jeremiah Wong, senior marketing communications manager at Chan Brothers Travel, said that the travel agency saw a more than five times surge in inquiries on their website.
Customers also contacted the agency through messaging apps, email, phone and social media.
He said that the inquiries have become “more direct” and people are “ready to book flights”, compared to before when interest had been more tentative.
“This announcement is opportune as the year-end period is when Singaporeans are looking to travel,” said Mr Wong.
Chan Brothers is rolling out itineraries for South Korea, which is a popular destination with Singaporeans, and Mr Wong thinks that Europe will also be more attractive now that travellers can choose to visit a few destinations there.
The agency has also received many queries from potential travellers about safety protocols and the COVID-19 situation in the countries they are interested in visiting.
TRAVEL INTEREST TO SOUTH KOREA, SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Ms Lim En Yu, 45, has already booked a trip with her husband and teenage children to South Korea in December.
While they had planned to go to Japan over Christmas if the country opened up, they switched the destination to Korea after the VTL announcement.
The family of four will be visiting Seoul and a ski resort on their first family trip in two years.
“The kids wanted to ski in Korea again for nostalgic reasons as it's where they first learnt to ski seven years ago. We also have some Korean friends and intend to catch up with them in Seoul,” said the marketing director at a property firm.
At Nam Ho Travel, a spokesperson told CNA that the agency is seeing more demand for travel to South Korea than European countries.
More people have been asking for private, small-group tours and there is a preference for more relaxed itineraries rather than those that try to cover as many destinations as possible – a norm in the past.
“I think right now some customers … just don’t like to mix with other people anymore,” she said.
For this seasonal service, flight SQ28 will depart from Singapore Changi Airport at 9.15am and arrive at Vancouver International Airport at 7.30am. It will then leave for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 8.40am to arrive at 9.30am.
Flight SQ29, SIA’s twice-weekly designated vaccinated travel lane service, will depart from Seattle at 11am and arrive at 11.45am in Vancouver, before departing again at 1.15pm to arrive the next day at 10.05pm in Singapore.
SIA will also operate SQ27, a twice-weekly Seattle-Vancouver-Singapore service, for customers who are not eligible to enter Singapore under the vaccinated travel lane arrangement.
The 253-seat Airbus A350-900 will be deployed for the Singapore-Vancouver-Seattle service, with 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats and 187 economy seats.
SAN FRANCISCO ROUTE TO BECOME VACCINATED TRAVEL LANE
From Oct 20, the airline will also convert its daily non-stop services from San Francisco to Singapore into designated vaccinated travel lane services. Tickets are already available for sale.
Flight SQ34 departs from Singapore at 6.40pm and arrives in San Francisco at 7.05pm. Return flight SQ33 departs at 10.05pm, arriving two days later in Singapore at 5.45am.
For this service, SIA operates the 161-seat Airbus A350-900 ULR, with 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy seats.
“With the new Singapore-Vancouver-Seattle flights and the conversion of San Francisco-Singapore to a VTL service, SIA customers can enjoy even more seamless travel options to North America during the year-end holiday season,” said SIA’s senior vice president for marketing planning JoAnn Tan.
“SIA will continue to monitor the demand for air travel, and adjust its services accordingly.”
GENEVA (AFP) - The World Health Organisation's (WHO) vaccine advisers on Monday (Oct 11) recommended people with weaker immune systems should be offered an additional dose of all authorised Covid-19 vaccines.
The UN health agency's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (Sage) also said over-60s who have been fully immunised with China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccine should be offered an additional third Covid-19 vaccine dose.
The experts stressed they were not recommending an additional so-called booster dose for the population at large.
Several Covid-19 vaccines have been given WHO approval for emergency use during the pandemic: Pfizer-BioNTech, Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm, Sinovac and AstraZeneca.
It is on the verge of deciding whether to give emergency use listing to India's Bharat Biotech jab.
Sage held a four-day meeting last week to review the latest information and data on a range of vaccines for Covid-19 and other diseases.
"Sage recommended that moderately and severely immunocompromised persons should be offered an additional dose of all WHO EUL (emergency use listing) Covid-19 vaccines as part of an extended primary series," the group said.
"These individuals are less likely to respond adequately to vaccination following a standard primary vaccine series and are at high risk of severe Covid-19 disease."
It also said that for people fully immunised with Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, an additional third dose of the same jab "should be offered to persons aged 60 and above".
A different vaccine "may also be considered based on vaccine supply and access considerations".
Sage added that when implementing this recommendation, countries should initially aim at maximising two-dose coverage in that population, and thereafter administer the third dose, starting in the oldest age groups.
Singapore is keen to work with Australia, New Zealand and Japan on quarantine-free travel, Singapore Transport Minister S. Iswaran said. (PHOTO: Getty Commercial)
By Kyunghee Park and Juliette Saly
(Bloomberg) — Singapore is keen to work with Australia, New Zealand and Japan on quarantine-free travel as the city-state pushes on with its strategy of living with Covid, Singapore Transport Minister S. Iswaran said.
“Certainly, Australia is a very important partner country for us. And there’s a great deal of connectivity between Australia and Singapore, and through Singapore to other parts of the world as well,” Iswaran said in an interview with Bloomberg Television Monday. “So we are quite keen to work with Australia, with New Zealand, with Japan and many other countries in the region, in terms of how we can move forward in this regard.”
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is pushing on with a strategy of living with Covid-19 without being paralysed by fear, saying in a televised address Saturday that the nation can’t stay “locked down and closed off indefinitely.” The island city recently added more countries, including the U.S., the U.K., France and Italy, to its list of places fully-vaccinated people can travel to quarantine free starting as early as Oct. 19, after kicking off a similar arrangement with Germany and Brunei last month.
Singapore has been gradually reopening its borders to revive travel after shifting from a Covid-zero strategy that was centreed around stamping out infections. The city-state, also one of Asia’s most-important financial hubs, now aims to treat the disease as endemic, considering 83% of its population is fully inoculated and most people who are getting infected aren’t falling seriously ill. The vast majority have little or no symptoms.
While every country is navigating its own domestic situation, what Singapore intends to do is “maintain the conversation and the discussion, because we are ready, we have a template of sorts in the VTLs we have established and will be prepared to work with our partners, including in Australia, to see how we can implement some of these as part of an initial set of moves,” Iswaran said on Monday.
Hong Kong Lane
As many as 3,000 people are expected to enter the island city daily under the expanded vaccinated travel lanes and capacity may increase after the government monitors demand and any resulting Covid cases, Iswaran said Saturday in a separate briefing to outline the new channels, which also include Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and South Korea.
More than 3,100 people from Brunei and Germany have already entered Singapore under the special lanes as of Oct. 8, Iswaran said over the weekend. So far, there have only been two Covid cases among those visitors, which were detected on arrival.
Singapore also Saturday cut the number of required Covid tests for travelers on the vaccinated lanes to two from four, significantly reducing cost and inconvenience. Singapore Airlines Ltd., meanwhile, is expanding its vaccinated travel lane flights to 14 cities, with more points on special designated services to be announced in coming weeks, the carrier said in a statement.
Shares in Singapore Airlines jumped as much as 9.6% Monday while stock in SATS Ltd., which provides airline catering and ground-handling services, rose 6.5%.
The city-state has also allowed quarantine-free travel from Hong Kong, China, Macau and Taiwan, although people traveling to those places must abide by local rules, which in most circumstances require lengthy quarantine upon arrival.
Talks between Singapore and Hong Kong for a quarantine-free travel arrangement ended in August after infections in both cities see-sawed. Differences in the pandemic strategies was a factor in the decision as Singapore moved toward a strategy of building a “Covid-resilient” nation, Hong Kong said at the time.
Iswaran said on Monday that Singapore was still open to working on a vaccinated travel lane with Hong Kong, as he underscored the importance of inter-regional connectivity.
“It’s very important, I think, that the connectivity within Asia, Asia Pacific is reinstated, particularly between the major aviation, financial, business hubs,” Iswaran said. “For example, the announcement that we made with respect to the Republic of Korea, I thought was very important because it’s the first of its kind between two major aviation hubs in Asia.”
Locally, Singapore is tightening some measures as the number of daily cases has exceeded 3,000 for several days running. As of Wednesday, only vaccinated people will be able to enter shopping malls, outdoor eating markets and other attractions. Dine-in also remains limited to those who have had the jab, and even then, only in group sizes of two.
Despite the strict local rules, which include mask wearing at all times when outdoors except while exercising, Singapore has been trying to revive the country’s aviation and tourism industries — both key to the city-state’s economy. Passenger traffic at Changi Airport, Asia’s second-busiest aerodrome for international flights, was just 2% of pre-Covid levels in the first eight months of this year while Singapore Airlines is bleeding red ink as a result of the pandemic.
In the latest update, South Korea and Germany are tied for second place, with such access to 190 countries. The two countries had been tied for third place in April, with access to 191 destinations.
Finland, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain are in third place, with access to 189 nations; while Austria and Denmark are in fourth, with access to 188 countries.
The index, administered by Henley & Partners and updated throughout the year, ranks passport power according to how many destinations their holders can travel to without a prior visa.
The global citizenship and residence advisory firm noted that the gap in travel freedom is at its widest since the index was started in 2006, with Singaporean and Japanese passport holders able to visit 166 more destinations than Afghan citizens, who can travel to only 26 nations worldwide without acquiring a visa in advance.
Britain and the United States have been facing eroding passport strength since they held the top spot in 2014. Both remain tied in seventh place, but have a score of 185, down from 187 in the first quarter of the year.
Egypt is ranked 97th, with its citizens having access to 51 countries without a prior visa, while Kenya is 77th, with access to 72 destinations visa-free.
These are in addition to Brunei and Germany, which Singapore had already approved for quarantine-free travel for those fully vaccinated.
In total, there will be 11 countries that Singapore approves for quarantine-free travel.
Based on data from the International Air Transport Association, the index showed that countries in the global north with high-ranking passports have enforced some of the most stringent inbound Covid-19 travel restrictions.
On the other hand, many countries with lower-ranking passports have relaxed their borders without seeing this openness reciprocated, it noted.
Henley & Partners chairman Christian Kaelin said: "It is pivotal that advanced nations consider revising their somewhat exclusive approach to the rest of the world, and reform and adapt to overcome the competition and not miss the opportunity to embrace the potential."
