City Beat | Never mind competing with Singapore, Hong Kong needs to engage international stakeholders to get back on world stage
- City’s way forward is not only to compete with Singapore, but to more proactively engage overseas stakeholders at all levels and sectors
- Mission of returning to global stage has not quite been accomplished by just making world leaders aware that city is gradually lifting Covid curbs
Competition is good – without it, we have complacency – but it should not mean shutting out the other side.
That’s what struck me on my first overseas trip in three years, attending a conference last week in Singapore, often seen as Hong Kong’s arch rival in many ways.
It was the first physical session of the annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum after two years of virtual meetings, and Singapore was chosen as the host venue.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping, his US counterpart Joe Biden, and other world leaders met at the G20 summit in Bali and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) gathering in Bangkok, Singapore hosted other senior officials, business heavyweights, academics and journalists from around the world. Hot topics at the forum included climate change, geopolitics and China-US relations.
People I spoke to in Singapore, both from the government and private sector, played down or dismissed any notion of the city state trying to be one up on Hong Kong.
The event used to be held in Beijing before the pandemic, but mainland China’s Covid-19 restrictions are keeping visitors at bay, and picking a fully reopened Singapore does make sense.
That’s not to suggest that the forum could have been held in Hong Kong if it had simply followed Singapore’s example – other factors also apply. However, Hong Kong’s current 0+3 arrangement – no quarantine but three days of “medical surveillance” restricting entry to certain venues – still deters many visitors.
