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China’s bank regulator gives a vote of confidence to Hong Kong’s ‘vital and indispensable’ role as Asia’s financial hub

  • Hong Kong is vital to China development in many aspects, CBIRC chairman Guo Shuqing said
  • Hong Kong is vital in the Chinese economy’s dual-circulation development and as the offshore centre for the internationalisation of the yuan, he said

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A view of Hong Kong Island from the Ocean Terminal at Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui on January 15, 2021. Photo: Sun Yeung
Enoch Yiu

Hong Kong has a vital and indispensable role to play in China to facilitate the economy’s so-called dual circulation development, as well as in the internationalisation of the yuan and the growth of the Greater Bay Area, said the country’s bank regulator.

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Hong Kong is “indispensable in many aspects” in China’s trade, investment, finance, legal, tourism and cultural activities, “so it is necessary for Hong Kong to further strengthen the cooperation and collaboration with the mainland,” said Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), in a keynote speech during the Asian Financial Forum (AFF).

“Hong Kong is vital to China’s new development pattern of dual circulation,” Guo said in his televised speech, delivered in English. “Hong Kong connects China’s domestic and international circulations.

The speech by Guo, who undertook a year of study at the St Anthony’s College at Oxford University in the late 1980s, is the most recent affirmation of Hong Kong’s importance by a senior Chinese regulator, as the city grapples to assuage concerns that it is losing its edge to Chinese cities lie Shenzhen and to rival cities around Asia, all competing to serve as the windows to the world’s second-largest economy.
Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), speaking during the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on Thursday, June 13, 2019. Photo: Bloomberg
Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), speaking during the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on Thursday, June 13, 2019. Photo: Bloomberg
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“We will provide greater market access to firms from Hong Kong to facilitate their development,” Guo said. “The Greater Bay Area will definitely become a model in our modernisation drive.”
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