The opening ceremony of the redeveloped Huanggang Port was held today at the Huanggang Port Mainland Port Area, with the facility set to officially open at 6.30am tomorrow.
Chief Executive John Lee officiated at the ceremony alongside Director of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee Huang Chuping; CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Standing Committee Member and CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee Secretary Jin Lei; CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee Deputy Secretary and Mayor of the Shenzhen Municipal Government Li Yun; Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Luo Yonggang; Director General of the Guangdong Sub-Administration of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Geping; Director of Bureau III of CPC Central Committee’s Hong Kong & Macao Work Office and State Council’s Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office Zou Jinsong; and Deputy Director of the Department of Border Security Check of the National Immigration Administration Mo Haiying.
The redevelopment of the port signifies the proactive alignment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government with national development strategies, fulfilling goals to strengthen regional infrastructure connectivity under the National 15th Five-Year Plan. Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan, announced last month, explicitly set out to leverage the strengths of the redeveloped port by implementing a co-location arrangement and adopting a novel “collaborative inspection and joint clearance” mode.
The official opening marks a major milestone for Hong Kong and Shenzhen in enhancing the layout of boundary control points, improving clearance efficiency, and facilitating the cross-boundary flow of people. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Lee described the project as a landmark undertaking built upon a close partnership and concerted efforts between Hong Kong and Shenzhen for shared benefits.
Mr Lee added that the official opening reflects a new height for connectivity within the Greater Bay Area, demonstrating “hard connectivity” in infrastructure, “soft connectivity” of rules and mechanisms, and a “connectivity of hearts” between the residents of the Mainland and Hong Kong. Positioned as the most important 24-hour passenger land boundary control point between the two cities, the redeveloped port has a design capacity of 200,000 passenger trips per day.
This capacity could further increase to about 300,000 trips daily upon the future commissioning of the MTR Corporation’s Northern Link Spur Line. Backed by the central authorities, the site implements a co-location arrangement with clearly delineated Hong Kong and Mainland port areas.
It is also the first land boundary control point between Hong Kong and Shenzhen to adopt the “collaborative inspection and joint clearance” mode, which significantly enhances the passenger experience. Under this new mechanism, clearance times will be significantly reduced from around 30 minutes at the original Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Port to approximately five minutes.
Since the establishment of the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area on July 31, the Hong Kong SAR Government has been pressing ahead at full steam with various preparatory tasks. Having confirmed operational readiness, Hong Kong and Shenzhen issued a joint statement on October 9, announcing that the port will officially open at 6.30am on October 12 to provide 24-hour clearance services for passengers and passenger vehicles.
Hong Kong SAR Government officials attending today’s ceremony included Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, Financial Secretary Paul Chan, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung, Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn, Secretary for Transport & Logistics Mable Chan, Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Janice Tse, Commissioner of Police Chow Yat-ming, Director of Immigration Benson Kwok, Commissioner of Customs & Excise Chan Tsz-tat, and Director of the Chief Executive’s Office Carol Yip.
