Why not leave the business at the Asian financial center? HONG KONG

Why not leave the business at the Asian financial center? HONG KONG .The giant six-storey structure – in the shape of a Chinese imperial palace – crept past yachts a fraction of its size earlier this month before a foghorn signalled its entry into the open sea.

On a cloudy June day, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant was taken out of Hong Kong’s Aberdeen Harbor.

The mega-restaurant, which can accommodate 2,300 dinners at a time, has been in Hong Kong waters for almost half a century. It attracted visitors such as Queen, Richard Branson and Tom Cruise, and appeared in numerous Cantonese and Hollywood films.

But over the years, the damage has been increasing, and the epidemic has taken a deadly toll.

For some, the restaurant’s departure was a sign of what’s going on in Hong Kong. The two had struggled over the years and now Jumbo, as appealed by Hong Kong as a great place to do business, was disappearing.

An unshakable zero-sum policy, which Hong Kong shares with mainland China, has hurt global trade, finance and trade-dependent economies. Strict travel regulations and intermittent lockdowns have kept tourists away, eliminated small and medium-sized businesses, and isolated the “global city of Asia” from the rest of the world.

This is after years of disruption – mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, a national security law that critics called “the end of Hong Kong” as they knew it, and a crackdown on freedom of expression.

Business owners say the incidents have changed the city’s population.

“This [business] was very much based on the expat market. From Hong Kong to New York, from New York to Hong Kong, London,” says Weni Loria, who runs several Hong Kong restaurants.

But, he adds, the restaurant business has “grown” with the growing influx of rich Chinese into the city.

“The strategy has changed a lot in the last 10 years,” he says.

This is not the first time that Hong Kong’s future as a rich but fast-growing business hub has been called into question.

BACK TO LAST 25 YEARS

Hong Kong has long been developing as a financial powerhouse. And since the British returned the former colony to China in 1997, the island has become a gateway for foreign companies to do business with China.

It had great advantages over regional rivals due to its sophisticated financial system, transparent rule of law, English-speaking workers and worldwide connections.

But ahead of the handover in 1997, Fortune magazine published a cover story – “The death of Hong Kong” – lamenting that “the naked truth about Hong Kong’s future can be summed up in two words: It’s over.”

Both foreign observers and many locals feared that Beijing’s influence would increase immediately, and that Chinese soldiers would soon be roaming the city’s streets, arresting people. Western newspapers also predicted that annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre – a taboo topic in China – would be banned.

But it will take another 20 years to jeopardize the freedoms of Hong Kongers – many pro-democracy leaders and activists, and even a media tycoon are now behind bars. And Tiananmen Square’s birthday celebrations are no longer allowed.

FUTURE 25 YEARS

But it will take another 20 years to jeopardize the freedoms of Hong Kongers – many pro-democracy leaders and activists, and even a media tycoon are now behind bars. And Tiananmen Square’s birthday celebrations are no longer allowed.

Mercer’s chief executive in Hong Kong, Wakifan, says more business is not uncommon for a market like Hong Kong, especially in the context of Quid, but he acknowledges that many people are moving.

Ms. Fan points to international schools as evidence – the first competitive campuses are now opening up space for local students. More than 100 100 billion was invested last year, just the second time since 1997. And in 2021, investment in Hong Kong fell sharply.

William H. Overholt said, “Hong Kong will remain a very rich city even if the foreign authorities leave, or refuse to look there because there are so many rich Chinese and powerful Chinese companies that We are excited to move there. ” Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Experts also point to Hong Kong’s role as a financial hub in the Greater Bay Area – a project that connects 11 southern Chinese cities with Hong Kong in the hub. The zone’s combined GDP already matches South Korea’s.

The future of Hong Kong is the Greater Bay Area. You can reach Shenzhen in 14 minutes from Hong Kong. The joke is that going to Shenzhen is faster than other people’s homes in Hong Kong, “said Mr Zeman.

Although Hong Kong is expected to become more integrated with China, experts say it will still not lose its unique place in the financial world.

“For many Westerners, it’s going to feel like another Chinese city. For the Chinese – for individuals and companies – Hong Kong is still a wonderful airplane to the world outside the mainland. “Where the legal system can be predicted, there is political pressure on business. There are very few of them on the ground,” said Mr Overholt.

And as the United States rapidly removes Chinese companies from its stock markets, Hong Kong will benefit. About 100 mainland firms are at risk of being delisted in the United States.

Mr Bernstein believes he will attract more investors to Hong Kong than to London or New York.

“There aren’t many places for them to go,” he said.

“It’s still a market where companies can go where there are deep sources of capital. Markets like Hong Kong offer advantages that Asian companies can’t get in the United States,” he added.

“Asian markets see the risk of a company run by governments, not by supply and demand. Today, the reality is that the world’s largest companies are run by governments.”

This change is already visible: of the 2,500 companies currently listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, more than 40% are in China and account for three-quarters of the exchange’s capitalization.

“Hong Kong’s power is becoming part of China; the first 25 years were an experience, in the next 25 years we will reap the benefits. Hong Kong will continue to be one of the great cities of the world,” Mr Zeman told the BBC. Told C. .

Experts say China doesn’t need another Shanghai or Shenzhen, a successful business hub – so far another Chinese city, Hong Kong, is likely to be the capital of a Chinese-led global economic empire.

It continues to be a gateway to China, and its role as China’s gateway to the world.

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