Quentin Parker

Opinion | Amid Covid-19 pandemic fatigue and brain drain, Hong Kong – and mainland China – must open up quickly or risk being left behind

Home-grown talent and professionals from the Greater Bay Area are no substitute for what is available from a global talent reservoir. Close human connection makes a difference

While Hong Kong takes important but baby steps, our rivals are making great strides. Something fundamental needs to shift here – and on the mainland

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People wait at a traffic light in Central, Hong Kong, amid the pandemic on October 23, 2020. After almost three years of Covid-prevention restrictions in the city, fatigue has set in. Photo: Winson Wong

Quentin Parker

Published: 2:00pm, 20 Sep 2022Updated: 2:13pm, 20 Sep 2022

We are sick and tired not just of hearing about Covid-19 but having to live in its shadow. What more is there to say? Well, I’m back after nine weeks in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, returning to Hong Kong in late August after my first academic trip abroad in almost three years.

All except two weeks were spent on professional, long-delayed activities: an important satellite project, a key research paper completed and submitted while working directly with collaborators, a scientific database porting project initiated, a conference talk given. This trip was a vital reboot to the many research endeavours put on hold or run on Zoom.

After months of effort, I had been given permission to leave Hong Kong and meet work colleagues overseas again. I was also, at long last, able to see some family. I am very lucky to have had these opportunities, especially given what so many endure here, but this is the nature of my vocation and why I was lured to Hong Kong in the first place.

Like many other professionals in Hong Kong, my experience speaks to the loss of vital function many have suffered, the continuing impact of which should not be underestimated.

The contrast between my travels and what awaited me when I returned could not be starker. In Europe, I was free to mingle, eat, drink and, yes, even be merry without worrying about masks, RAT tests, PCR obligations, quarantine and myriad other small but tiresome inconveniences that made coming back much harder than expected.

Reports of a brain drain are no surprise under such ongoing, even if recently relaxed, restrictions. It is more like a tsunami of lost talent, a torrent of foregone opportunities, a cascade of failed and failing businesses under a cloud of Covid-19 fatigue in a city now missing the tourist dollar and visibly less cosmopolitan.