Hong Kong business leader urges government to review regulations so city can remain competitive on world stage

Chamber of Commerce CEO wants regulatory impact assessment done on cost of doing business in the city

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Shirley Yuen, the General Chamber of Commerce CEO, has called on government to put in place a process to assess the impact of regulations on business. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:01pm, 16 Nov 2018Updated: 11:28pm, 16 Nov 2018

Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce wants the government to review the cumulative impact of regulations on business costs to maintain the city’s competitiveness as a global financial hub.

The chamber made the appeal as proposals to extend maternity leave and revise the way employers give severance payments has raised the spectre of higher operating costs for the city’s firms.

In an interview with the Post, Shirley Yuen, the chamber’s CEO, said having a means for the government to evaluate regulation proposals across industries was crucial to maintaining business confidence in Hong Kong.

The chamber wants government to ensure Hong Kong remains competitive as a financial centre. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Yuen said the government needed to look at the overall effects of regulations on the cost of doing business, and used labour regulations as an example. The “cumulative effect of these on business could be really huge”, she said.

The chamber boss was referring to the introduction of a minimum wage in 2011, the plan to extend maternity leave from 14 weeks, and the removal of the mechanism in the Mandatory Provident Fund that allowed bosses to use their portion of contributions to employees’ accounts to cover long service and severance payments.

“It’s really about the mindset – rather than just adding regulations, which may have very good reasons, let’s not forget about the possibility about cutting down or removing those regulations that are no longer fit for purpose,” Yuen said.