Policy Address
Immigration Convenience
111. As a tourism, financial, business and trading centre in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong must continue to attract business visitors and tourists from the rest of the world. Hong Kong people often go on sightseeing or business trips to the Mainland and overseas. Last year, the passenger traffic in and out of Hong Kong continued to rise, almost topping 220 million trips. Convenient and efficient immigration services are essential. Hong Kong has so far secured mutual visa-free access or visa-on-arrival arrangements with more than 130 countries and regions. We are about to conclude an agreement with our close neighbour, the Macao Special Administrative Region, to further streamline clearance for residents travelling between the two places. We expect the new measures to take effect in mid-2009. For Taiwan, I have just outlined measures to facilitate the entry of its people. In addition, we expect to sign a mutual visa-free access agreement with Russia in the near future. This will be the first such agreement signed by Russia with a developed economy, and will help promote the trade and tourism development between our two economies.
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