Press Releases

Hong Kong welcomes lifting of travel advice by Australia

Hong Kong's recent success in containing the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has earned the goodwill from yet another major trading partner - Australia.

Australia today (May 28) joins the earlier move of several other countries - Switzerland, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Austria, Singapore and the Philippines (for maids coming to Hong Kong) - to lift travel restrictions on Hong Kong following the lifting of travel advisory by the World Health Organisation last Friday (May 23).

Welcoming Australia's move, a Government spokesman said it has been encouraging that these countries have made a speedy move to lift the travel advisory on Hong Kong, which would help restore the confidence of international travellers as well as overseas investors.

"The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government would like to thank the international community for their understanding in the course of SARS, especially those who had rendered support and advice to us through their local representatives.

"We have learned a lot from this incident and we can assure our trading partners and overseas travellers that the Hong Kong's environmental hygiene has greatly improved and we are doing more to raise our standards.

"In particular, we will continue with our 100 per cent cross-border screening for all travellers to live up to our commitment not to export SARS to other countries," the spokesman said.

End/Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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