New Huanggang Port Joint Inspection Building Main Structure Construction Basically Completed

Documents submitted by the Security Bureau to the Legislative Council show that the main structure of the joint inspection building at the new Huanggang Port has been basically completed. The Hong Kong contractor is carrying out interior construction and installation of necessary facilities in the port area through “synchronous construction.” Shenzhen is also constructing the connecting bridge between the joint inspection building and the Hong Kong road network, which will also be used for laying fiber optic cables to support communication and data transmission between the Hong Kong port system and the main Hong Kong servers.

The Security Bureau stated that the SAR government will continue to work closely with the Shenzhen municipal government, actively implementing various preparatory tasks, aiming to complete the project early and enable the new Huanggang Port to be operational within this government term. The detailed arrangements and timetable for port opening are subject to further discussions between the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments.

The SAR government has initiated preliminary preparations for local legislation. Additionally, the Security Bureau is advancing other preparations related to the opening of Huanggang Port, including establishing a cooperation framework with Shenzhen for the “one location, two inspections” arrangement; operational arrangements for Huanggang Port, including system and site testing, drills before opening; as well as the operation, maintenance, and repair arrangements for the new connecting bridge and roads, and agreements on the maintenance of the joint inspection building.

The new Huanggang Port will implement the “one location, two inspections” arrangement. It is expected that the overall clearance time at the new port will be significantly reduced from about 30 minutes at Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang to approximately 5 minutes. The port will adopt a “cooperative inspection, single clearance” model, with 134 “cooperative inspection” self-service channels and 68 traditional manual counters. Both governments will set up self-service and manual inspection facilities side by side within their respective jurisdictions at the port boundary. Travelers using the self-service channels will only need to queue once, check their documents once, verify their identity once, and then pass through the inspection zones of both sides to complete the entry and exit procedures.