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By Michael Ong
(The author is director of Philippines’s MetroBank (China)
Hong Kong will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland on July 1, 2022. Coincidentally, a new Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government will also take office.
Over the past 25 years since its return to the motherland, Hong Kong has achieved remarkable results with the strong support of the central government and joint efforts of all Hong Kong compatriots. However, it has also gone through lots of ups and downs in the past 25 years. Especially in recent years, Hong Kong faces unprecedented challenges brought about by both the turbulence over the proposed amendments bill in 2019 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
With the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong and the complete failure of Western countries’ attempts to meddle Hong Kong, foreigners would leave Hong Kong in a short period of time, thus bringing changes to its talent structure and occupational ecology. As a result, professionals from the mainland will fill the vacancies of foreigners in different fields. Just like the past, mainland residents, replacing international tourists, has become a major source market of Hong Kong’s tourism and consumption after the central government allowed them to travel to the special administrative region on their own. Meanwhile, Hong Kong residents will find more development opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Deeper integration between Hong Kong and the mainland will be a general trend.
I believe that Hong Kong still has its unique advantages. With the deepening reform and opening up of the motherland, and the construction of the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong will deeply engage in and even take the lead in the construction of the Greater Bay in some fields by relying on its own institutional advantages, talent advantages and geographical advantages.
I’m fully convinced that Hong Kong's status as a global financial center is still irreplaceable. Hong Kong's legal system and high-quality talents will remain a bridgehead for conducting economic and trade cooperation between the mainland and foreign countries. Many mainland companies will look to raise capital in Hong Kong’s capital market. China remains a hot spot for global investors and their major trading partner. Hong Kong will be the main platform for foreign investment in China or their trade financing and settlement with China.
The Philippines is a country that I am quite familiar with and have lived in for a long time. Its President-elect Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos will take office on June 30. He has had friendly exchanges with China for nearly half a century. We are optimistic that under the leadership of Marcos, the new Philippine government will strengthen economic and trade cooperation with China and participate in the construction of Belt and Road Initiative in a more active manner.
Philippines-Hong Kong economic and trade ties, as well as people-to-people exchanges could be dated back a long way, so that many Philippine business people still take Hong Kong as a transit location for trade financing and settlement with the Chinese mainland. For a long time, official statistics of investment and trade between China and the Philippines were far lower than real data, which mainly because many goods had been transited through Hong Kong. As deepening economic and trade ties between the Philippines and China, Philippines and Hong Kong will enjoy closer economic exchanges, with Philippine people seeing Hong Kong as a shopping paradise.
We have every reason to believe that, with the strong support of the central government, the new Hong Kong SAR government will make steady and sustained progress by relying on strong national strength, the keen understanding of complex dimensions and making full use of various resources.
Hong Kong, the Pearl of the Orient, will shine brighter!
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
