Top legislative body to discuss Hong Kong’s shared control at upgraded crossing

China’s top legislative body will discuss a bill next week to authorise Hong Kong’s jurisdiction over part of the redeveloped Huanggang Port in Shenzhen that will adopt a “co-location” arrangement when it opens next month.

Meetings to be held by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee between June 23 and 26 in Beijing were announced on Tuesday after its chairman, Zhao Leji, chaired a discussion at the Great Hall of the People in the capital.

According to state news agency Xinhua, the standing committee’s coming session will review a bill regarding a decision to “authorise jurisdiction over the Hong Kong Port Area at Huanggang Port and its related extended areas”.

The proposed agenda will also include reviewing a progress report on a pilot scheme that allows Hong Kong and Macau legal practitioners to obtain mainland Chinese qualifications and practice law in the nine mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area .

The bay area is a Beijing initiative to turn Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province into an economic powerhouse.

The redeveloped Huanggang Port Building is scheduled to open in July. The new complex, located in Shenzhen, will replace the existing Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang crossing as the only 24-hour link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen .

Passengers using the new checkpoint will no longer need to take a shuttle bus across the Shenzhen River for immigration clearance, as facilities from both sides of the border will be housed under one roof.