Advertisement

Four reasons HK doesn't yet need to worry about Shanghai

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0

Last year, Shanghai outstripped Hong Kong in terms of economic output.

That shouldn't be too much of a surprise. After all, Shanghai is an entire province, with a population of 19 million residents to Hong Kong's relatively meagre seven million.

Even so, for Hong Kong, afflicted as the city seems to be with a chronic inferiority complex, the news is bound to be the cause of fresh tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth.

Coming on top of Shanghai's recent deal to build a Disney park of its own and last year's central government pronouncement that the city is to be developed as the mainland's chief international financial centre, news that Shanghai's gross domestic product has now surpassed our own is only going to stoke fears that the mainland city is on a mission to eat Hong Kong's lunch.

Yet when it comes to our position as an international financial centre, Hong Kong's inhabitants really shouldn't get their knickers in such a twist.

People who like to claim that Shanghai is already breathing down Hong Kong's neck as a financial centre usually point to how rapidly Shanghai's stock exchange has grown.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x