After winning the election as the sixth-term chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (May 8, 2022), John Lee waves at the people. Photo by cnsphoto
As John Lee Kachiu, the sixth-term Chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), is elected, Hong Kong businesses have high hopes for a stable environment.
Business insiders indicated that closer integration with China’s mainland market after the opening a new chapter is highly expected, as the mainland market remains huge and attractive for enterprises from Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong’s greatest advantage in the past was stability. Hong Kong can no longer withstand setbacks after the turmoil in 2019 and nearly three years of the Covid19, and I believe that the greatest hope for the business community is prosperity and stability,” Michael Li Chi-fung, vice honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Chinese Importers’ & Exporters’ Association, told the Global Times on Sunday.
He anticipated that the business community in Hong Kong would share his expectations. They have high expectations for John Lee, who has promised to adopt a results-oriented approach as well as foster new features of governance.
The election was held amid contraction in Hong Kong’s local economic, ending a streak involving yearly expansions that began over the previous four quarters. This was due to weak domestic and external demand.
The SAR’s GDP dropped by 4 percentage points in real terms in the quarter that ended in January, compared to a 4.7 percent increase in the fourth-quarter of 2021, according to the Census and Statistics Department of the Government of the HKSAR.
Paul Chan Mo–po, the Financial Secretary, said that the recovery in HK will take time. The external environment will remain uncertain and risks may increase. All of this means that the SAR will have a difficult task to grow the economy this coming year.
Hong Kong businesses are closely monitoring the epidemic in the mainland. HK-based businesses want to start their operations on the mainland but Li says they also understand that it will take time to eradicate the virus completely.
He suggested a flexible quarantine system to maintain neither-mal interactions between the markets. For example, if there are more than 100 infections in Hong Kong, those entering the mainland should be quarantined for seven day, and for 14 days if they exceed 1,000.
Li noted that although the HKSAR government has taken anti-cyclical measures to increase economic development, local businesses still need to work harder.
Li stated, “Keeping COVID-19 infections under control and stable will be a significant way of promoting local economic development. But most businesses are looking forwards to welcoming more customers from the Chinese mainland because Hong Kong is an ex-oriented economy.”
Despite the appeal of the Chinese mainland market to HK businesses, many of their products or services are not able fully to make it to mainland China because there are regulatory differences to overcome.
Li stated that Hong Kong is the ideal location for enterprises from the main land looking to raise capital. The US-China political tensions are putting increasing pressure on US-listed Chinese companies. Li noted that these obstacles require responsible authorities from both parties to overcome.
Ken Wong (executive vice chairman of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Promotional Association) told the Global Times Monday that small businesses and individual owners are looking forward for a new chapter. He called on the new chief executive to make more efforts to help the economy, take more measures to bail out distressed businesses, and to reopen the border between Hong Kong and China under the premise to prevent epidemics.
“Despite the challenges caused by the Ukraine crisis and other factors, we are still convinced that Hong Kong’s international competitiveness will continue to draw global investors to invest,” Wong said.
Wong stated that Hong Kong could also leverage its strength as an in-novator to promote medical cooperation in the Greater Bay Area, and other cities on the mainland.
