Jake's ViewA new financial council won't take us anywhere

"I will establish the FSDC [Financial Services Development Council] as proposed in my Manifesto immediately. It will provide a high-level and effective platform for stakeholders to explore ways to complement the internationalisation of the financial market of our country. It will also help facilitate the further development of ... blather, blather, blather"

I want to sit on this council. Yum-yum-yum. Rarely in the history of mankind will any group of people be able to dine so well and so often as this bunch will, both at home and around the world, in their pursuit of financial development. I look forward to a new gastronomes' Bible.

But as to getting anything more, I have grave doubts. This thing sounds too much like the Trade Development Council, and in the TDC we already have a government production long past its sell-by date. We need to shut it down, not start up another like it.

The best way "to complement the internationalisation of the financial market of our country" is already perfectly apparent. It is for Hong Kong to do what the mainland cannot do or will not do in financial services. This, in fact, has always been the foundation of Hong Kong's entire economy.

The less said about it, the better in financial services, however. Too often, it involves evasion of mainland taxation or of regulatory authorities.