Time for Hong Kong to open its doors to Asean talent and capital

Hong Kong can add value to Southeast Asian economies as an education hub on the doorstep of the Greater Bay Area
The city must also be more proactive about attracting professionals, entrepreneurs and ultra-high-net-worth individuals from Asean

Daryl Ng

Published: 9:30am, 30 Nov 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

Time and time again, I have been asked if I believe in Hong Kong’s future, and if our city can thrive amid the geopolitics in the region and globally. To this question, I always answer in the affirmative.

Hong Kong’s future lies in leveraging its strengths and wherewithal as China’s most international, cosmopolitan and forward-thinking city. We need to continue to connect China with the world and facilitate the growth of the Global South as those economies rapidly rise. Co-creating this future requires us to take the initiative together.

For a start, there is much we can do for our friends and partners in Southeast Asia. Our city must be truly accessible to the region’s students, scholars, workers and entrepreneurs seeking to avail themselves of the robust institutions, practices and norms that make Hong Kong unique and attractive.

Indeed, as Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said at the recent Hong Kong-Asean summit, the city is uniquely placed to add value to the member states of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, and thus the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We are not only a superconnector, we can also add value as a vibrant hub where intellectual and human capital can grow.

To do this, we must ensure that Hong Kong is open and welcoming to talent and capital from Asean. There are three dimensions to this.

Firstly, education is critical to equipping our future generations with essential skills and upskilling them so they remain relevant; it also deepens people-to-people exchange and fosters genuinely meaningful ties. Hong Kong must step up to serve as an education hub for both Northeast and Southeast Asian students.

Given that five of the world’s top 100 universities are in Hong Kong, we are well placed to provide the future leaders of Asia with rigorous academic training, research opportunities and a truly immersive experience of China.

Hong Kong, which is both on the doorstep of the Greater Bay Area and at the confluence of China and the international community, is an ideal setting for young people from Asean to experience China first-hand and develop a pragmatic understanding of it.

I welcome the forward-looking measures set out in the latest policy address, such as allowing publicly funded universities to double the admission quota of non-local students, to up to 40 per cent, injecting HK$1 billion into the Government Scholarship Fund and increasing the belt and road scholarship quota by 50 per cent. These measures will go a long way towards fostering a more conducive environment for academic exchange, including with Asean.

Why China’s mega-rich are moving to Singapore’s safe haven

Employers with a presence across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong can offer more cross-border internships and training programmes (for six months in Hong Kong and six months in Southeast Asia, for example), so young people may develop an international perspective. The Hong Kong-ASEAN Foundation is open to further collaboration with both private and public sectors in establishing greater incentives for exchange.

Going forward, we can do much more to elevate the human capital coming from Asean. As highlighted by Thai Deputy Prime Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara at the summit, technical cooperation between Hong Kong and Southeast Asian economies, in sectors such as medical technology and e-commerce, could be mutually beneficial.

Secondly, it is high time Hong Kong revisited the requirements for (non-permanent) resident status. This is integral to the government’s efforts to attract talent from Southeast Asia. In his policy address, the chief executive announced that visa rules would be relaxed for Vietnamese talent, and talent schemes expanded to Laos and Nepal.

City University is one of the five Hong Kong universities listed among the world’s top 100 institutions by Times Higher Education. Photo: May Tse

Our professional industries are renowned for their efficiency, transparency and accountability. Many Southeast professionals choose to come here to hone their skills, before returning home to drive transformative changes.

Fostering a balanced synergy between Hong Kong and Asean is vital to ensuring that our gains in manpower can contribute towards the long-term economic growth of the region. Win-win cooperation is no slogan, it is a reality we must collectively work towards.

Thirdly, Hong Kong must continually ensure that it can cater fully to the rapidly growing market of Southeast Asian high-net-worth individuals, leading entrepreneurs and family offices.

Asia’s rich are parking their wealth in ‘safer’ assets as global risks grow

The commitment to issue foreigners working for Hong-Kong-registered companies with multiple-entry visas for the mainland is another welcome measure announced recently.

Indeed, more can be done for established businesses, prospective investors and leading start-ups from Southeast Asia that are scouting around for a base to expand into China and beyond.

Hong Kong needs to invest in strengthening expertise in Islamic finance, as well as the disparate milieu of Southeast Asia. The city can help drive the internationalisation of the renminbi by facilitating Asean governments’ issuance of yuan-denominated bonds through the Hong Kong stock exchange, and further streamlining cross-border transactions and clearing using offshore renminbi.

The establishment of a Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy is one of the eight measures set out in the government’s policy statement on developing family office businesses, issued in March.

According to industry estimates, Asia had more than 150,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (those with investible assets of at least US$30 million) in 2022, representing a quarter of the global ultra-high-net-worth population.

As wealth continues to accumulate in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia, the next 20 to 30 years will be an important time for family offices to plan for wealth succession. It is high time for Hong Kong to open up strategically and proactively – to unleash our potential.

Daryl Ng is chairman of the Hong Kong-ASEAN Foundation, an independent platform dedicated to strengthening relations with the Asean through Hong Kong