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Donald Tsang

Why roll out welcome mat only to trip up visitors?

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Shirley Yam

Tomorrow, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah will lead a senior delegation to Moscow and St Petersburg to promote Hong Kong as the best place to list Russia's rich natural resources.

This should be an easy sell, given our market's dramatic rebound, stellar track record in financing China's reform and, most important of all, unrivalled access to investment-thirsty mainland investors.

After all, where on earth can the cash-starved Russians find a place where wealth has been largely unscathed by the financial crisis than the mainland?

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Yes, London, the old favourite of Russian issuers, has a cultural and historical edge, but that is very much negligible now, given the deep wounds the Europeans have suffered in the past nine months.

The sales pitch should not be too difficult for Mr Tsang. Well, only if the Russians do not ask about the friendliness of our regulatory regime.

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The answer to that would be very disappointing.

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