Shenzhen visa restrictions open up new job opportunities for Hongkongers
As multiple-entry visas for mainlanders face the axe, a recruitment drive begins to find more Hongkongers to carry goods across the border
Stop the big, bad traders from the mainland who are choking up the border towns and crowding out local stores with their insatiable demand for baby milk formula and other goods.
This plaintive plea that at times spewed into full-blown protests was at the heart of the complaints against the so-called parallel traders who buy things here to resell on the mainland.
But yesterday's move by the central government to do just that, by axing the multiple-entry visas in favour of once-a-week entry permits, has not been greeted with the same fervour.
Instead, the policy change has exposed the other side of the coin: Hong Kong parallel traders who contribute to the thriving business.
It would appear also that the masterminds behind parallel trading are already changing their strategy to recruit more Hongkongers, especially retirees, to ferry goods across the border.
Days before yesterday's announcement, such recruitment advertisements went up online. And yesterday, dozens of parallel traders shrugged off the change as they continued to gather at their meeting points at Sheung Shui MTR station and the Shek Wu Hui Market.
They were there to collect daily necessities like baby milk formula, shampoo and beauty products from the distributors to pack into their suitcases and haul them across the border.
