Citigroup To Raise Office Capacity In HK To 90%
HONG KONG – Citigroup intends to increase its workplace capacity here from 75 percent currently to 90 percent starting tomorrow (1 September), reported Bloomberg on Tuesday afternoon (31 August, SGT).
The New York-based financial firm’s plan to increase its office capacity in Hong Kong to its highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic started was stated in an internal memo that was verified by a company representative.
The higher workplace capacity comes as the COVID-19 situation in the Chinese territory Kong is “largely contained with no local infection cases for a prolonged period of time and the vaccination rate among colleagues continues to increase,” said Citigroup to its staff.
Despite the looming 90 percent office capacity, the financial firm has been more careful than the other multinational banks operating in Hong Kong. For instance, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America started fully re-opening their offices here in June after the 4th resurgence of COVID-19 was under control.
At present, Citigroup has over 4,000 staff in the Chinese territory.
In comparison, the spread of the more contagious Delta variant in the United States has seriously impacted the plans of Wall Street companies to let their employees return to their workplace in September.
Notably, Hong Kong has kept COVID-19 cases low with its aggressive policy, including the world’s strictest quarantine rules. Earlier this month, the government increased the quarantine period for most returning residents by 2-fold.
Although this strategy has enabled the city to mostly return to normalcy, companies operating in Hong Kong are getting irked by the stringent travel rules and quick changes in policy.
