Hong Kong not yet a world city, think tank says
Hong Kong may fancy itself as Asia's world city, but a local think tank says it has yet to reach the status of New York and London - and risks falling behind local rival Singapore.
HKGolden50, a think tank founded by former UBS fund manager and Central Policy Unit member Franklin Lam earlier this year, made the conclusions in a study released yesterday charting Hong Kong's path to becoming one of the world's three bona fide financial hubs.
'The gravity of the global economy is shifting from the West to the East. And in the East there are only two main candidates to become world cities: Hong Kong and Singapore,' said Marco Au Chi-hang, a researcher at HKGolden50.
The report suggests focusing immigration policy towards attracting more skilled workers. Singapore's immigrants are twice as productive as the average citizen; the comparable figure in Hong Kong is 45 per cent. A 'one country, one market' policy might attract graduates from across the border - or, as the report describes it, the hinterland.
The think tank advocates a stronger effort to educate the poor, including new immigrants, as the size of the city's workforce is set to shrink by up to 40,000 people each year.
No report on the city's future would be complete without mention of high rents and limited land supply.
HKGolden50 suggests building shopping centres and office space near the airport in Tung Chung and developing a mall under the West Kowloon Cultural District.
'When you compare the rise in the rent of residential and commercial buildings, residential rates increased 8 per cent last year while commercial rents have increased by 30 per cent,' Au said.
'Hong Kong faces a shortage of commercial buildings and shops, and I think the high rent is slowly killing entrepreneurship in the city.'
The suggestions are designed to bring the city up to speed with London and New York, where per capita incomes are 75 per cent and 146 per cent higher, respectively.
$222.7b
Singapore's GDP, in US dollars, at 2010 nominal prices, against Hong Kong's $224.1 billion
