Regulators, bankers push for freer capital flow between Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area to boost city’s gateway role

Former HKMA CEO Norman Chan calls for ‘a bolder step in building a special bridge between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area’ using technology like blockchain

Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area should also strengthen their ties in technology and innovation, Neil Shen of venture firm HongShan says

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(From left) Eddie Yue, Joseph Yam and Norman Chan, the current and former CEOs of HKMA, take part in a special fireside chat at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on Tuesday. Photo: May Tse

Published: 9:22pm, 7 Nov 2023

Regulators and bankers have called for broader capital flow between Hong Kong and the rest of China’s Greater Bay Area to enhance the special administrative region’s role as a bridge and gateway, as well as to advance the region’s economy.

“I think we should take a bolder step in building a special bridge between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area,” Norman Chan Tak-lam, the former CEO of Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), said at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on Tuesday. “Because the Greater Bay Area is big, we can afford to have some pilots to see how it goes.”

Chan, who retired in October 2019, pushed for “freer movement of capital” within the bay area using blockchain, adding that the technology could be used to test its impact on capital raising and other cross-border economic activities.

He was speaking at a fireside chat with Eddie Yue Wai-man, the current HKMA CEO, and Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, the first head of Hong Kong’s de facto central bank.

President Xi Jinping has emphasised that Hong Kong would play a critical role in mainland China’s economy. Hong Kong would be better integrated with national development plans and play a “better role” in realising the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, Xi said at the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress in October last year.