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Jess Ma

The finance chief has met British economic and central bank officials during his London visit, where he also sought to defend the local business environment by saying Hong Kong “will never be just another Chinese city”.
The office of Paul Chan Mo-po revealed on Friday that he had met economic secretary Tulip Siddiq and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey the day before, confirming a report by the Post.
Both parties had exchanged views on the global economy and financial development, the office said.
Chan is seeking to deepen trade ties in his second post-pandemic trip to London, after visiting Madrid for four days with a delegation of technology industry leaders.
He made the first visit in September last year as part of a trip to Europe. The only disclosed meeting involving Chan and UK officials at the time was one with Bailey.
Chan’s visit this month is also his first opportunity to meet the United Kingdom’s newly elected Labour Party government, which ended the Conservative Party’s 14-year run in a landslide election win in July.
After meeting the UK officials, the finance minister also explained recent developments in Hong Kong, saying the city was “changing for the better” and the government would continue to boost its “superconnector” role and attract strategic enterprises.
“Hong Kong is not, and never will be, ‘just another Chinese city’. What is changing is changing for the better,” Chan said at an annual dinner hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in London.
“The sound and robust fundamentals of Hong Kong are here to stay.”
The finance minister, who is set to return to Hong Kong on Sunday, told the audience that initial public offerings, or IPOs, had picked up again, with more than 100 companies in the pipeline to list locally.
Chan added that Beijing had also called for Hong Kong to maintain its status as an international financial, shipping and trade centre in the recent third plenary session.
He said the policy direction required Hong Kong to “remain a trusted hub for international investors and businesses” while also upholding key features of the “one country, two systems” governing principle.

Bank deposits in Hong Kong rose by 4 per cent to about HK$16.8 trillion (US$2.2 trillion) in the first seven months of this year, according to official statistics.
Chan said the figures showed that investors continued to have confidence in the city, hailing the news that Hong Kong had returned to third place in the latest Global Financial Centres Index announced earlier this week.
He said the city’s “key features” that remained firmly in place included the common law system, the independent judiciary, the low tax system, and the free flow of capital, goods, information and talent.
He pointed to Hong Kong’s currency peg to the US dollar as another advantage.
Chan also defended the independence of the judiciary after the abrupt departure of three overseas non-permanent justices in a single week earlier this year.
One of the departing trio, British judge Jonathan Sumption, at the time claimed that the city’s rule of law was “profoundly compromised”.
Chan said: “While two UK judges from our Court of Final Appeal recently resigned, seven esteemed overseas judges have stayed on, including three from the UK.”
The finance minister said authorities were firmly committed to the rule of law and gave the example of a non-permanent judge on the city’s top bench, Australian Patrick Keane, who told a news outlet from his home country that he saw no evidence the city government was pressuring the judiciary.
Chan introduced the latest innovation and technology developments, saying that doing business in the city was “not a taxing situation” and multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies were setting up in the city to access the mainland Chinese market.
He also met Chinese ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang to exchange views on fostering greater trade ties between Hong Kong and the UK.


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News

Hong Kong

Politics

Paul Chan also seeks to defend local business environment by saying Hong Kong ‘will never be just another Chinese city’


Paul Chan also seeks to defend local business environment by saying Hong Kong ‘will never be just another Chinese city’.


Paul Chan

Hong Kong politics

Britain