Soaring rents and hefty school fees: Hong Kong's cost of living a worry for potential European investors, EU's top envoy says
With generous financial packages a thing of the past, EU envoy says Europeans in city are no longer sheltered from soaring cost of living
"Does Hong Kong belong to the People's Republic?" As obvious as the answer might sound, the European Union's top envoy to the city says he is often asked the question on his travels around the continent.
"Whenever I travel in Europe, I'm often struck by how little people actually know about Hong Kong," Vincent Piket, head of office of the European Union to Hong Kong and Macau, said.
"They often have some general ideas - the photographs of Victoria Harbour, the high-rises and the Star Ferry ploughing up and down. But beyond that, the knowledge is very, very limited.
"Sometimes people ask me what language Hong Kong people speak."
Piket, 56, assumed his post here in September 2012, almost two decades after the EU set up an office in the city.
He said he had never visited Hong Kong until a year before taking up his position, when he came with his family on holiday while serving as the EU's ambassador to Malaysia.
"I had no clue at that time that I would come here. We came just to do the tourist thing - up The Peak, cross Victoria Harbour, museums, Hollywood Road and things like that."
Now three years into the job, he says economic and political issues have topped his work agenda, and there is "a lot of work" to be done to educate people in Europe, especially prospective investors, about the meaning of the "one country, two systems" principle.
Unlike the operation he headed in Kuala Lumpur, the Hong Kong office - with just 13 staff members - does not need to take care of diplomatic affairs covered by embassies, such as security, defence and foreign policy.
According to the office's EU-Hong Kong 2015 year book, the EU retains its position as Hong Kong's second largest trading partner after the mainland.
The European community here ... is no longer the classical expat community
The ranking is no surprise given the union comprises 28 member countries, 17 of which have a national diplomatic mission in Hong Kong.
But an emerging problem for Europeans in the city, he says, is that Hong Kong is becoming less affordable as a place to live and work since Westerners began to turn to the job market in Asia after the financial crisis hit developed economies in 2008.
"The European community here ... is no longer the classical expat community, like diplomats like me who, after a few years, go back home. More and more of what you see is Europeans who simply come to Hong Kong on the road to look for a job, find a job and work for Hong Kong or European firms.
"In other words, those people do not have the expatriate packages. They have no paid housing and no paid schooling. It's quite new."
Consequently, he says, soaring rents and house prices and hefty school fees are "definitely an issue" of concern for investors.
"This will require … attention from the government, particularly on the aspect of international schools, which are expensive and not always affordable for everybody who comes here without expatriate benefits," he said.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Piket has been with the EU since 1992, including more than 10 years in posts in central and eastern Europe.
He said his next post is uncertain, but for now, with his official residence just next to Repulse Bay, he is enjoying rediscovering his childhood love of sailing.
"As a Dutchman you grow up with the water, and I did quite a lot of sailing when I was young. It was really a surprise for me when I arrived here to find such wonderful sailing opportunities," he said, recalling routine four-hour voyages to Sai Kung.
HK-EU TIES IN BRIEF
- EU companies in Hong Kong: 1,937
- Goods imported from EU (last year): €34.7 billion (HK$303 billion)
- HK goods exported to EU: €10.7 billion
- Services imported from EU (2013): €10.7 billion
- HK services exported to EU (2013): €8.9 billion
- Tenure: posted in September 2012. Previously EU Ambassador to Malaysia (2008-2012); Head of unit for regional cooperation programmes for Asia at the European Commission (2005-2008)
- Education: doctorate and master of arts from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Hobbies: sailing, collecting art
