GBA Briefs

Hong Kong: SAR's first electric ferry set to enter service in Q1 of next year Hong Kong's first electric ferry, the Xin Ming Zhu 39, is set to arrive in the special administrative region this week from a shipyard in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, for a trial run. Macao: GDP growth in first 3Qs nears pre-pandemic levels The Macao Special Administrative Region's economy has shown promising signs of recovery, with GDP in the first nine months of this year reaching 301 billion patacas for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, representing about 86.3 percent of the GDP in 2019 for the same period. Shenzhen: Face scans replace ID card checks at Shenzhen Bay Port Physical identification checks were replaced with facial scans for eligible travelers at Shenzhen Bay Port between Shenzhen and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Nov 20, along with Gongbei Port between Zhuhai and the Macao SAR. Zhongshan: New bus route linking Zhuhai, Macao facilitates integration A new bus route connecting Zhongshan, Zhuhai and the Macao Special Administrative Region went into service on Nov 18 to facilitate integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.