Steering the ride through Covid-19 crisis, Uber Technologies revealed a deal on Tuesday where they plan on moving their Asia-Pacific headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong, if the local government allows that to happen legally.
At a press conference, Uber Hong Kong’s general manager, Estyn Chung expressed that the decision would help create more jobs, help sustain innovation, and create an engineering and innovation hub there.
Uber, which has been in Hong Kong for six years now, had got its drivers arrested in several instances for driving passengers without a car-hire permit. Since Uber hasn’t received the green signal from the government, the company is now hopeful and speculating the legislation as- regulatory certainty is key since there is no legislation in the city for regulatory services for ride-sharing apps yet.
Earlier this month, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took a big bet by cutting more than 3,000 jobs and closed more than 45 offices globally to save over $1 billion in fixed costs. Now, the ride-hailing company has bigger plans ranging from consignment to self-driving cars, and one of the plans include moving the Asia headquarters out of Singapore.