Hong Kong fund managers’ lobby group urges incoming Chief Executive John Lee to drop quarantine rules
- Quarantine measures have ‘battered’ city’s financial industry, says Sally Wong, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association
- Tens of thousands of residents, including finance industry professionals, have left the city because of the strict social distancing and quarantine rules
The city’s financial industry has been “battered” by the quarantine measures, said Sally Wong Chi-ming, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association, which represents firms with more than US$52 trillion in assets under management, in an email to Bloomberg News.
“The longer we are stuck in this restrictive mode, the more we are reducing our relevance and competitiveness in the international arena,” Wong said.
Loosely following mainland China’s zero-Covid approach, Hong Kong mandates a seven-day quarantine for incoming travellers even as rival centres such as Singapore, London and New York have dropped all restrictions. The city has seen an outflow of tens of thousands of residents, including bankers and finance industry professionals who have chafed at the strict social distancing and quarantine rules.
Signs have mounted recently that officials have grown concerned. The city has drifted from President Xi Jinping’s strict Covid policy of eliminating the virus in recent months, resisting tightening curbs even as it has seen more than 800 daily infections. Even the outgoing leader, Carrie Lam, said last week that the travel restrictions have undermined the city’s status as a finance hub.
Officials are now planning for a summit in November and will seek to invite top bankers and asset managers in a show that the city is getting back on its feet.
Given the planned summit the city must have some “working assumptions” and officials should share any plans “as to how, when Hong Kong will open up to the rest of the world”, Wong said in the email.
“If we can achieve quarantine free travel soon, the November summit would be propitious to show that Hong Kong’s connectivity with the rest of the world is back in motion; and we are firing on all cylinders,” she said.
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The group is also preparing a larger “wish list” of what it expects from Lee when he takes over in July, according to Wong.
