00:00Obviously there's a lot of talk about what you know this this aligning of and this planning tool could mean
00:06right. Just having a five year plan for Hong Kong.
00:08What do you think this means for Hong Kong's economy and its integration with the Chinese mainland. Yeah. Great to
00:14have this conversation with you outdoor just in front of the government building.
00:18To me it's a very exciting event. It's the first time Hong Kong have the five year plan. When it
00:23comes to five year plan the first thing I was relating to is the Chinese national five year plan
00:29which is always our focus as a market economy is focusing on the growth target five percent or four and
00:35a half percent so forth.
00:36Hong Kong has not had this type of practice in the past. So I would be very interested to know
00:41how they're going to work the growth target.
00:45Now obviously this is not a binding target but I would be more concerned about whether you're able to meet
00:51the expectation not just for the development of the city
00:55but also the whole plan or the whole idea is to be part of the national development and how Hong
01:01Kong can contribute
01:02and ultimately how the positive feedback loop can come back and benefit the city development itself.
01:09What does that positive feedback look like to you? I mean obviously Hong Kong has that edge of being an
01:15international hub,
01:16access to global investors, rule of law. What sort of role do you think Hong Kong plays in the Greater
01:23Bay Area then?
01:24No, obviously Hong Kong's role is a hub, whatever hub, you know, shipping hub, financial hub, even tourism,
01:31you know, people's moving around, you know, through this city is a gateway and with a very special treatment,
01:39you know, compared with the rest of the mainland. And so how the new policy or what they plan to
01:46do over the next few years
01:48is under this new governance framework that on one hand I need to help the mainland or contribute to the
01:54development of mainland
01:55but at the same time able to deliver a win-win solution. And so that more capital can be coming
02:00back to Hong Kong for IPO,
02:02for the financial sector development and also even for the tech development that it seems to be that we are
02:08obviously lacking behind,
02:10you know, just across the Central River. It's a completely different scenario. So it is not about the plan itself.
02:17It's also about how they're going to execute it. And with just having a piece of paper, you know, in
02:22this document is not going to be helpful.
02:25But how they can make use of the money so that today's investment that will also be debt financed that
02:30will translate into the overall development of the city.
02:34You mentioned about tech development. It seems like there is an aim here in this five-year plan to shake
02:40off the dependence on traditional pillars of growth,
02:44whether it's finance, property, trade. How difficult is it to transition the economy to this new emerging growth driver,
02:52which is technology and all things that come with it? Yeah, Hong Kong differentiates from the rest of China with
02:58a very different jurisdiction,
02:59even including monetary policy, for example. We are not making our own interest rate decision and relying on the global
03:07situation,
03:08especially for the U.S. because of the pick. So the cyclical performance of the city is highly vulnerable to
03:16the global development,
03:17compared, you know, with the mainland. So for tech development, for transitioning from the property-driven economies in the past
03:27to a tech-led approach to support the overall development of the city, it's got to be facing a lot
03:36of a constraint,
03:36for example, as I mentioned about interest rate and the volatility in the global market in terms of fundraising and
03:42so on and so forth.
03:43So do you think this five-year plan, do you think it could benefit Hong Kong more or China more?
03:47Who needs it more?
03:48This is something they need to do anyway. You know, that's the expectation from the central government.
03:53So I don't think Hong Kong has a choice not to follow, you know, the practice, you know.
03:59Setting a growth target for Hong Kong, I think the big question people ask is,
04:04is Hong Kong walking away from this sort of traditional loose governance sort of touch, minimalist sort of touch?
04:12How do you address those concerns? What do people ask you about, you know, losing this sort of free market
04:18sort of ecosystem or system?
04:20You know, since Hong Kong, we turned back to the mainland sovereignty in 1997.
04:26You know, that's actually the first year I came back to Hong Kong to work.
04:29So the last 30 years, the different chief executive want to develop, you know, the plan, you know,
04:33to be more proactive in industrial policy and cyber port, for example, way back 20 years ago.
04:40And now talk about tech is just in different location, not in Hong Kong Island, but in new territories.
04:45You know, the Chinese medicine, they tend to have an idea is to support some sectors.
04:52My old fault, you know, as an economist, my bottom line is that as long as you maintain the free
04:56market system
04:57and make use of the unique advantage as an offshore economy of China,
05:05that will continue to the big benefit for the mainland government to leverage this type of advantages
05:12and also, you know, the very diverse participants of the economy.
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