Apec Business Advisory Council meeting: Hong Kong teeming with wealth-creation opportunities despite headwinds

Hong Kong offers plenty of wealth management and stock market opportunities despite a flurry of headwinds and uncertain economic outlook in China, top business leaders said at a high-level conference on Tuesday.

Some 200 key business leaders from across the region, representing 21 economies, are in Hong Kong for a four-day summit of the Apec Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the advisory body’s second meeting of the year.

“We’re still very positive about the overall business opportunities in Hong Kong [and] despite the [economic] slowdown and the structural challenges that we are facing, we still believe China is the growth driver,” said Amy Lo Choi-wan, chairman of global wealth management Asia at UBS.

The vast amount of wealth creation in China presents a huge opportunity for wealth managers in Hong Kong, Lo said.

She added that the Swiss bank was moving its office to West Kowloon “right above the high-speed train station” to capture the opportunities in the Greater Bay Area. “In one hour, I can cover a 2 million population, US$2 trillion GDP [gross domestic product] and 25 per cent of [China’s] high-net-worth population.”