TNAG-1734-FCO40-2447-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 307

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL- 11 May 1988

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SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, I suspected that I would get a question like this and I took the precaution of going out to the airport yesterday and see for myself precisely how this was done. The regulators are Immigration Depart- ment's staff. They are experienced and I was struck with the ease and the speed with which they were able to decide who was likely to be a Hong Kong resident or not a Hong Kong resident. In assessing whether they should direct particular people to an under-used line, they paid particular attention to whether the person was old, incapacitated, or had small children.

MRS. CHOW: Sir, may I suggest, instead of the present system where the regulation of traffic to the counters is left to incoming travellers, that the Administration gives consideration to having two main queues, one for Hong Kong residents and the other for non-residents, each with a regulator at the top of the queues so that the flexibility of the use of counters could be achieved by co-ordination between the two regulators while neither Hong Kong residents nor visitors would be inconvenienced.

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, I very much doubt whether the layout of the airport will allow that sort of procedure to be followed. It is as I have said an open front plan. The stage V extension of the airport which is due to be com- pleted by the end of the year is designed to provide even more immigration counters spread out laterally and the space 'vertically' (in the approach to the counter) would not permit the two long lines that Mrs. CHOW has suggested. The number of arrival counters will in fact be increased from 52 to 90 and the number of departure counters from 46 to 76. I would suggest that we see how this system works and then consider whether further review is necessary.

MR. SOHMEN: Sir, I believe the basic problem is not really the segregation of residents from non-residents but the overall waiting time. Could the Secretary for Security advise us what he expects the reduction in the processing time will be when computerisation is completed?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: There are two points here, Sir. The computerisation is designed primarily to allow Hong Kong residents with Hong Kong identity cards, while they are at the counters, to get through quickly by using their cards; in that case the actual waiting time at the counter will be reduced to something like 36 seconds. But I think the time referred to by Mr. SOHMEN was more the overall time taken by the passengers to get through.

At present, according to a survey conducted in March this year, 61.9 per cent of arriving passengers was cleared through immigration within 15 minutes, 28.2 per cent within 16 to 30 minutes while 9.9 per cent waited for more than 30 minutes. If I might add, for departures, the times are rather better and 90.3 per cent of passengers are cleared within 15 minutes, 9.4 per cent within 16 to 30 minutes and only 0.3 per cent wait for longer than 30 minutes. Now we do not