Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yung and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, in the Legislative Council today (November 11):
 
Question:
 
     The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Shenzhen Municipal Government have been progressively implementing the "East in East out, West in West out" planning strategy for cross-boundary goods traffic, with a view to facilitating the efficient and smooth flow of people, goods and vehicles within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) of the respective numbers of eligible Hong Kong permanent residents who have enrolled for and used the Seamless e-Channel service at the Hong Kong Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to date; the percentage of eligible Hong Kong permanent residents who have enrolled for the service; as the Administration has indicated that it will continue to review the effectiveness of the Seamless e-Channel service and system operations, and will explore the feasibility of extending the service to other immigration control points, of the current progress in this regard;
 
(2) whether the authorities have studied how to implement the "collaborative inspection and joint clearance" or "contactless clearance" mode through modification or redevelopment of other boundary control points (BCPs); if so, of the progress of the study, the BCPs initially assessed to be ready for implementation, and the timetable for follow-up studies;
 
(3) of the respective daily average and highest single-day passenger throughputs at the Lo Wu Control Point and the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point during long holidays in 2026 (including the Lunar New Year, Easter, the Birthday of the Buddha and the National Day Golden Week); given that the Lo Wu Control Point has on multiple occasions extended its operating hours of passenger clearance services to 2am the following day during long holidays, whether the authorities have studied regularising this arrangement (such as making it a standard practice for long holidays), and of its impacts on manpower and clearance demands;
 
(4) whether the authorities will consider providing 24-hour cargo clearance at the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP or other suitable BCPs; if so, of the specific timetable; if not, the reasons for that; if other BCPs are not ready for 24-hour cargo clearance in the near future, whether the authorities will consider extending their clearance hours first as an interim arrangement; and
 
(5) whether the authorities will explore with the Mainland the gradual relaxation of cross-boundary quota restrictions on smaller vehicles to implement the "East in East out, West in West out" planning strategy for passenger traffic, and allow private cars with other quotas to use the Shenzhen Bay Port and Liantang BCP during non-peak hours on a pilot basis first, while integrating the reservation systems of both places for dynamic traffic flow management?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     To tie in with national development planning and the development blueprint for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has all along been maintaining close collaboration with the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government to upgrade the infrastructure and facilities of the land boundary control points (BCPs) between Hong Kong and Shenzhen with a forward-looking strategy, deepen the reform of boundary clearance modes, and actively leverage technology to seek innovative breakthroughs in taking forward a series of measures to enhance the clearance capacity and facilitation level of BCPs, with a view to facilitating the convenient and efficient flow of people, goods and vehicles in the GBA and strengthening connectivity between Hong Kong and Shenzhen as well as other GBA cities.
      
     In consultation with the Transport and Logistics Bureau, a reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Chan Yung is as follows:
 
(1) The Immigration Department (ImmD) launched the pilot "Seamless e-Channel" service at the departure hall of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) Hong Kong Port on June 25, 2026, utilising facial recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to verify users' identities and allowing passengers to complete self-service departure clearance procedures in a non-stop manner without the need to present their Hong Kong identity cards or "e-Channel" QR codes during the process.
 
     Three months after the launch of the pilot service, the ImmD relaxed the eligibility criteria for enrolment in the pilot "Seamless e-Channel" service on September 24, 2026. At present, Hong Kong permanent residents aged 11 or above holding a valid smart identity card who have departed from or arrived in Hong Kong via the Passenger Clearance Building of the HZMB Hong Kong Port six times or more in the past 90 days are eligible to enrol for the service.
 
     Since the launch of the service and up to November 8, 2026, over 79 000 persons have enrolled for the "Seamless e-Channel" service, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of those eligible for enrolment, with a patronage exceeding 200 000 passenger trips.
      
     The "Seamless e-Channel" service has been operating smoothly since its launch, and the ImmD is planning to extend the service to the arrival hall of the HZMB Hong Kong Port. Meanwhile, the ImmD will continue to review the operational experience and effectiveness of the pilot service and, depending on the actual operational situation, explore the feasibility of extending the relevant service to other suitable immigration control points (such as the Express Rail Link West Kowloon Control Point).
 
(2) In planning new BCPs or redeveloping existing BCPs, the HKSAR Government will actively explore adopting innovative clearance modes and leveraging innovative technologies to enhance clearance efficiency and bring convenience to cross-boundary passengers. Following the first adoption of the "collaborative inspection and joint clearance" mode at the Huanggang Port, the Hong Kong and Shenzhen sides have also reached a consensus on adopting this clearance mode at the Sha Tau Kok Control Point upon its future redevelopment.
 
     As for leveraging innovative technologies to enhance clearance services, the ImmD will launch the Automated Transportation On-board Clearance System Pilot Scheme at the HZMB Hong Kong Port in December 2026, using AI and facial recognition technology to automatically verify the identities of pre-registered, eligible, cross-boundary private car drivers and passengers (who are Hong Kong permanent residents aged 11 or above), enabling "contactless on-board clearance". The pilot scheme deploys multi-camera real-time tracking technology to capture the facial features of the driver and passengers inside a private car, coupled with high-speed search AI algorithms to conduct identity verification for all persons on board simultaneously. All persons on board will then be able to complete immigration clearance procedures while remaining seated in the vehicle without the need to present any documents, and the average clearance time is expected to be substantially reduced from about two minutes to about 20 seconds.
      
     Regarding other existing BCPs, since any changes to their clearance modes must be premised on not affecting the existing operations of the BCPs, the issues involved are more complex than those in planning new BCPs. Therefore, the HKSAR Government and relevant Mainland authorities must conduct careful planning to ensure that conditions in various aspects, such as port design, boundary arrangements, layout of facilities and passenger flow planning, can fully complement one another before considering the implementation of such changes.
 
(3) During the major long holidays in 2026, the daily average cross-boundary passenger traffic and the highest single-day cross-boundary passenger traffic at the Lo Wu Control Point and the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line (LMCSL) Control Point are set out below:

Major long holidays in 2026 (as at October 31)	Lo Wu Control Point		LMCSL Control Point
	Daily average passenger traffic (passenger trips)	Highest single-day passenger traffic (passenger trips)	Daily average passenger traffic (passenger trips)	Highest single-day passenger traffic (passenger trips)
Chinese New Year holidays (February 14 to February 23)	189 760	230 348	161 192	198 453
Easter and Ching Ming Festival holidays (April 3 to April 7)	241 292	257 748	206 238	219 568
Labour Day Golden Week of the Mainland (May 1 to May 5)	224 676	274 642	206 781	268 386
Birthday of the Buddha holidays (May 23 to May 25)	264 387	269 099	229 718	237 674
National Day Golden Week of the Mainland (October 1 to October 7)	219 250	250 136	195 849	223 354
Chung Yeung Festival holidays (October 17 to 19)	255 797	265 287	202 266	217 357

     The opening hours of land BCPs between Hong Kong and Shenzhen are determined through consultation between the governments of the two places and are subject to the approval of the Central Authorities. Extending the operating hours of clearance services at BCPs involves the overall operation of the ports on both sides, and careful consideration has to be given to a basket of factors, including actual needs, passenger throughput, effective utilisation of resources by both places, manpower deployment and ancillary transport facilities at the relevant BCPs.
      
     On the basis of the 24-hour passenger clearance services provided at the Huanggang Port and the HZMB Hong Kong Port, the HKSAR Government will continue to closely monitor the actual situation and needs of cross-boundary passenger and vehicular flows, and liaise with relevant Mainland authorities on special clearance arrangements in a timely manner having regard to the demand for boundary clearance during festive holidays.
 
(4) The Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments commissioned the cargo clearance facilities of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP in August 2020, which has substantially shortened the travelling time between Hong Kong, Shenzhen and eastern Guangdong, thereby facilitating co-operation and development between the two places and neighbouring provinces. Meanwhile, the Shenzhen Bay Port located in the western part also extended the operating hours of its cargo clearance services to 24 hours in December 2020.
 
     At present, cross-boundary goods vehicles travelling to and from the eastern part of Shenzhen and eastern Guangdong mainly use the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP, complemented by the Man Kam To Control Point which primarily handles fresh food supply to Hong Kong; whereas cross-boundary goods vehicles travelling to and from the western part of Shenzhen mainly use the Shenzhen Bay Port which provides 24-hour cargo clearance services. Overall land-based cross-boundary goods traffic operation has all along been smooth in general.
      
     As regards extending the operating hours of cargo clearance services at individual land BCPs, as aforementioned, the relevant proposal involves the port operations of both Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and careful consideration has to be given by the governments of the two places to a basket of factors, including actual needs, utilisation of resources, manpower deployment and ancillary transport facilities. On the basis of the 24-hour cargo clearance services currently provided at the Shenzhen Bay Port, complemented by the cargo clearance services at the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai BCP and the Man Kam To Control Point, the HKSAR Government will continue to closely monitor the needs of the cross-boundary goods transport trade and, having regard to actual needs, liaise with the relevant Mainland authorities and review the relevant measures in a timely manner.
 
(5) In respect of passenger transport, the Guangdong and Hong Kong governments currently allow cross-boundary hire cars and cross-boundary coaches holding Guangdong-Hong Kong regular quotas to choose other BCPs to travel between Guangdong and Hong Kong in addition to crossing the boundary via their original designated BCPs, bringing convenience to both transport operators and passengers. Meanwhile, Guangdong-Hong Kong cross-boundary private cars currently holding permits for using Hong Kong-Shenzhen land BCPs have been allowed to use the HZMB without the need for additional procedures for travelling between eastern and western parts of Guangdong Province.
 
     At present, Guangdong-Hong Kong cross-boundary private cars holding permits for using the Heung Yuen Wai, Sha Tau Kok, Man Kam To and Shenzhen Bay control points are permitted to use the Huanggang Port between midnight and 6.30am daily. As regards the proposal to allow private cars holding quotas for other BCPs to use individual BCPs during non-peak hours on a pilot basis, the relevant proposal involves port operations and traffic arrangements between Guangdong and Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government must carefully study factors such as the current handling capacity of various BCPs, the capacity of major roads in the vicinity of the BCPs, the current average vehicular flow, and the impacts of the additional vehicular flow on cross-boundary public transport services and the overall operation of the BCPs, so as to ensure that the respective BCPs can perform their traffic diversion function, and will need to deliberate jointly with the Guangdong side to carefully consider the relevant proposal.

Ends/Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Issued at HKT 16:33

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