Hong Kong may join Beijing-led AIIB by year end.
SCMP headline, March 26
I once went to an annual general meeting of the Asian Development Bank, and there received object lessons in the arts of how to waste money and how to abase myself in the presence of the lords of creation.
These particular lords of creation were the deputy finance ministers of various Asian countries, each of whom had installed himself in a suite at the Philippine Plaza hotel in Manila, where the event was being held.
As No 3 on a three-man delegation from an American investment bank, I was there to make our presence seem all the more a gesture of respect for the big man while our No 1 in roundabout ways asked him, “please, Sir, may we handle your next big bond issue or any privatisation you care to arrange”.
The Big Man would then deign to bestow us with the light of a smile from his countenance and tell us he would consider the matter. We would thereupon stay for another five minutes during which it was my task to laugh at his witticisms and nod solemnly at the profundity of his wisdom.