MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): Thank you, President. In the face of fierce global competition and rapid changes in the international landscape, Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre will be further challenged. If Hong Kong is to maintain its edge, it must enhance its competitiveness. I am grateful to Mr Jeffrey LAM for proposing this motion today to give us an opportunity to discuss it.
Before its return to the Motherland, Hong Kong has become an international financial centre and an international centre for commerce and trade with an open market, sound legal and taxation systems, a stable social order, and an efficient administrative structure. Since its return to the Motherland, Hong Kong has faced many challenges, especially the political turmoil created by the opposition, which has hindered Hong Kong’s development and even discouraged investors, making Hong Kong much less competitive than before. At the same time, the recent hostile policies adopted by Western countries against China will surely make Hong Kong suffer. If Hong Kong is to maintain its international competitiveness and continue to make contributions to the country and the people of Hong Kong, it must not only actively integrate into the overall development of the country, but also consolidate its status as a financial centre and a centre for commerce and trade.
Today, a number of Members have put forward their proposals, including expeditiously discussing quarantine-free travel arrangements, expediting the promotion of fintech and green finance, enhancing the regulatory regime, regularly assessing the inadequacies, and telling a good Hong Kong story to international investors. I agree with all of them and will not repeat them. I would like to analyse the problems facing Hong Kong from a more macro perspective. Before its return to the Motherland, Hong Kong adopted a policy of positive non-intervention, believing that the Government would naturally attract investors if it did a good job in developing its hardware, without intervening in the market or actively soliciting investors. To use an analogy, a person has opened a shop and believes that if the goods are put on show, customers will naturally come, without the need for marketing and active solicitation of customers. This kind of thinking is out of touch with the times. In fact, Hong Kong has conducted studies on many development projects over the years, but they were eventually aborted due to a lack of investors’ participation.
Frankly speaking, when it comes to investment promotion, the State is certainly an outstanding example, but Hong Kong’s competitor, Singapore, is also a model for Hong Kong to learn from. At present, Singapore may still be inferior to Hong Kong in terms of its stock market, but it is not any weaker in other areas such as financial services or business and trade, and is even better than Hong Kong in many respects. It is important to know that Singapore does not have the advantage of being backed by a motherland, nor does it have any natural resources, but it does have a proactive and aggressive government.
The Government of Singapore has set up an agency called the Economic Development Board, which is specifically responsible for promoting investment and organizes more than 10 investment promotion activities every year; for important investment promotion activities, the ministers and even prime minister-level officials will lead the teams to contact investors around the world. At the same time, the agency also helps enterprises to expand their business in Singapore, and go around the world to recruit elite talents for enterprises. In addition, Singapore offers special incentives to encourage investment, such as tax incentives for up to 10 years for innovation and technology enterprises, as well as tailor-made incentives for other enterprises in different situations. Besides, the Government of Singapore will encourage foreign securities to enter its market, actively develop new financial derivative products, and even recruit foreign enterprises to issue stocks or bonds in Singapore. As a result, Singapore has successfully built up a headquarters economy and developed into an international financial centre.
In contrast, although Hong Kong has made some progress by launching international publicity and promotion and introducing some preferential measures, the Hong Kong Government is still conservative in its mindset and does not directly solicit or invite enterprises to come to Hong Kong, nor does it offer tailor-made preferential measures for different enterprises. As a result, Hong Kong is often at a disadvantage when competing with Singapore, and in recent years has lost a lot of business to Singapore. I hope that the new Government will formulate a brand new policy and ask the relevant official and quasi-official organizations in Hong Kong to take up the responsibility of promoting investment, adopt a more proactive and aggressive attitude, organize international investment promotion activities in response to the situation, and take the initiative to solicit international enterprises to invest in Hong Kong.
Thank you, President.