The remarks were made by Qi Bin, deputy director of the central government’s liaison office, who noted that Hong Kong’s stock market is one of the best outperforming markets in the world this year, with average daily turnover reaching nearly HK$300 billion since last month, indicating a strong return of global capital to the city.
Qi, a former vice-president of China’s sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, said the SAR should roll out more reforms to drive the city’s capital market growth, including a blueprint that offers the market medium to long-term expectations.
Speaking at the HSBC Global Investment Summit, he pointed out that a blueprint made by the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission in 2008 helped make the country’s capital market the second largest in the world.
The blueprint offered a comprehensive analysis of the country’s capital market, a slate of reform measures and clear timetables.
“This blueprint [in Hong Kong] will provide suggestions for improvements to Hong Kong’s capital markets,” he said.
“A dedicated task force will solicit feedback from leading global investors and financial institutions for the coordinated growth of both Hong Kong and Asia’s capital market.”
Other proposed measures, he added, include “accelerated integration between the city’s capital markets and mainland’s high-tech enterprises,” such as emerging artificial intelligence and robotics firms, while ramping up market supervision to fend off systemic risks and introducing extra long-term funds, including foreign exchange reserves and social security funds.
He also noted that Beijing will offer strong support for the city’s upcoming inaugural “Hong Kong Global Financial and Industry Summit” in June, when more than 1,000 chief executives from around the world will gather and discuss new projects in the SAR.
Acting Chief Executive Eric Chan said at the same event that there are signs that global capital is returning as the city’s total deposits rose by 7.1 percent last year.
Chan added that the SAR will also continue to strengthen its position as an offshore yuan centre.
“Hong Kong’s role as a super connector has never been more vital,” he said.
“We remain the world’s largest offshore renminbi business hub, each day processing close to 80 percent of cross border renminbi payments outside the mainland.
“We are now working to enable multi-currency settlements and enrich renminbi products, offering REITs under Stock Connect and exploring new initiatives with mainland regulators,” Chan said.
For his part, Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai warned about a potential “bubble” from the over-construction of data centres in the world, following the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology.
He said that some projects were being built without clear customers in mind.
“My question to them is, has Microsoft or Google or Amazon or even Alibaba agreed to start using your data centres once it’s built? Do you have any agreements? And they said ‘no. So I start to see the beginning of some kind of bubble,” he said.
Tsai also said that private enterprise confidence had increased on the mainland after President Xi Jinping met a group of entrepreneurs in Beijing last month.
