'Ronnie O'Sullivan and HK mutually attracted,' says HK's labour chief

British snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan and Hong Kong were “mutually attracted to each other”, the city’s labour chief said last Friday, citing the city’s tax system, food and the popularity of snooker as the contributing factors.  

This came after the snooker star obtained Hong Kong residency under a talent scheme named "Quality Migrant Admission Scheme”, according to the Immigration Department. 

According to a video released last Thursday, O’Sullivan told immigration director Benson Kwok that he had spent quite some time in Hong Kong, “made good friends here” and always enjoyed his time in the city. 

“Snooker is very popular here as well. Obviously, like myself, someone travelling from another country, tax is also a good thing. But your food and culture make here a great place to be,” O’Sullivan said. “If you want to live a life, a good life, you should come to Hong Kong.” 

Secretary for labour and welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said O’Sullivan’s success in becoming a Hong Kong resident was facilitated by Kwok’s personal ties. Sun said Kwok was also a regular snooker player.  

“My way of describing it is that we are mutually attracted to each other,” Sun said at a talent policy briefing. “He thinks Hong Kong is very attractive, and we think he is great. 

“We are happy to have such a top player. The most important thing is that he sees the attractions of Hong Kong.” 

In terms of social sentiments, media intelligence firm CARMA saw over 4,000 mentions regarding the English snooker star’s decision to move to Hong Kong. Among these, 35% expressed positive sentiments, while 18.8% were negative.

CARMA's HK GM Charles Cheung said netizens generally welcome O’Sullivan’s move. "Although many acknowledge that the low tax regime is a key factor in his decision, they believe his relocation could enhance the local snooker scene. Netizens hope that Hong Kong will continue to attract talents such as O’Sullivan through the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS), with some urging authorities to address issues of fake qualifications in QMAS applications," he added.

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Launched by the government in late 2022, the new talent admission regime has received over 380,000 applications to date, with around 160,000 talents arriving in Hong Kong along with their families, said the city’s leader John Lee as he laid out his third Policy Address in October. He added that in the next five years, there is expected to be a shortage of about 180,000 workers across various sectors. 

To build a quality talent pool for development, the government will update the talent list (人才清單) to include talents required for development of the "eight centres" (八大中心). It will also expand the list of universities under the top talent pass scheme to 198 universities by adding 13 top Mainland and overseas universities, and extending the validity period of the first visa of high-income talents under the scheme from two years to three years. 

The government will also introduce a new mechanism under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (優秀人才入境計劃), proactively inviting top-notch talents to come to Hong Kong for development, promoting the city as the focal point of international high-calibre talents; and extending for two years the pilot arrangement of including graduates from the GBA campuses of Hong Kong universities under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates.

The Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE) will step up promotion of its online platforms to offer comprehensive information on salaries, taxation, education, and visas, in addition to providing personalised assistance. It will also organise another international talent forum and conduct overseas promotion.

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