Macau government vows to allow more local cars to enter Hengqin

Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak said earlier this week that the local and Zhuhai governments would gradually allow more Macau-registered vehicles to enter Hengqin Island.
Wong made the remarks on Tuesday at Macau Tower where he attended an official reception to celebrate the 17Ih anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).
According to The Macau Post Daily, the first phase of the Macau-Hengqin cross-border traffic arrangement enables owners of Macau-registered cars and people carriers who are running at least one company on the island to apply for their single-plate cars to enter the island.
Local car and people-carrier owners who have obtained at least one plot of land on the island can also apply.
Each car or people-carrier owner can apply for a maximum of three cars to enter the island, according to the press conference.
Before applying for their cars and people-carriers to enter Hengqin, the vehicle owners are required to buy a “Motor Vehicle Traffic Accident Liability Compulsory Insurance” policy for the mainland, according to a statement by the Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) on Friday.
On the sidelines of the Tuesday’s reception, Wong told reporters that while the local government understood that local residents had expected the arrangement to be applicable to more cars from the city, it had to be implemented step by step, because the capacity of the border checkpoints on either side of the border – Cotai and Hengqin – had to be taken into consideration, apart from the road network on the island, which is thrice the size of Macau.
Wong also said the local government and its Zhuhai counterpart would discuss the second and third phases of the arrangement in the near future, so that more Macau-registered vehicles will be allowed to enter Hengqin.