https://www.scmp.com/rss/315641/feed David Liao is co-chief executive, Asia-Pacific, at HSBC. en https://assets-v2.i-scmp.com/production/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com There are few international financial centres situated so close to nature as Hong Kong. On a good day I can reach the beach within 20 minutes from my desk; in under an hour, I can stand among the birds and frogs of the Yuen Long wetlands. The Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park, host to more than 60 species of coral, is only 20km or so away from Mong Kok, one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods on the planet. So it is entirely appropriate that Hong Kong, long a hub of global capital, has become a... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3274456/how-hong-kong-can-be-climate-change-superconnector https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3274456/how-hong-kong-can-be-climate-change-superconnector Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:30:08 +0000 Being Asia’s premier international finance hub has brought great benefits to Hong Kong’s people. The city has enviable transit infrastructure, one of the world’s best performing school systems and gross income per capita of US$54,370, slightly higher than Germany’s. On my recent trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, many business and political leaders asked me how Hong Kong has been faring in the wake of Covid-19. I answered that this is undeniably a difficult moment. While the worst of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250260/hong-kong-taking-hit-global-business-cycle-design-feature-not-bug https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250260/hong-kong-taking-hit-global-business-cycle-design-feature-not-bug Tue, 30 Jan 2024 21:30:12 +0000 At a time when the local, regional and global challenges seem to outweigh the opportunities, Hong Kong finds itself on familiar ground. With the outlook clouded by a storm of inflationary pressures, geopolitical turmoil and pandemic uncertainty, pundits are calling Hong Kong’s future into question. But we’ve been here before: during the riots of the 1950s and 1960s, through the crisis of confidence surrounding the handover in 1997, and again during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars)... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3183599/change-shouldnt-intimidate-hong-kong-we-have-always-thrived-it https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3183599/change-shouldnt-intimidate-hong-kong-we-have-always-thrived-it Sun, 03 Jul 2022 01:15:21 +0000 Last week’s budget offered a reminder that despite the significant challenges of the pandemic, there are still opportunities to strengthen Hong Kong’s economic future, particularly when it comes to enhancing our status as a global financial centre. Financial Secretary Paul Chan’s primary focus was, as it should have been, ensuring that Hong Kong’s commercial sector would not only survive the continuing disruption caused by the fifth wave of Covid-19, but bounce back as soon as restrictions are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3168830/hong-kongs-budget-offers-glimpse-how-city-can-lead-china-green-and https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3168830/hong-kongs-budget-offers-glimpse-how-city-can-lead-china-green-and Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:15:09 +0000 Covid-19 has not been beaten yet, but as vaccines become more broadly available, we need to look beyond the successes of individual countries to what a global recovery should look like. The pandemic remains a global challenge. China was the only major economy that managed to avoid contracting during 2020, and even then growth was about a third of its normal level. The recovery in China and the US should not blind us to the fact that the future prosperity of every nation is inextricably tied to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3142218/why-sustainable-global-recovery-cant-afford-leave-any-country https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3142218/why-sustainable-global-recovery-cant-afford-leave-any-country Sat, 24 Jul 2021 22:45:17 +0000 In 1980, sponsors of China’s Yizheng Chemical Fibers desperately needed capital to build a large-scale chemical fibre plant. State-owned financial institutions were unable to help. Having nowhere else to turn onshore, Yizheng issued a US$50 million bond overseas to raise funds, becoming the first Chinese enterprise in the modern era to tap the international bond market. Nearly 40 years on, Chinese issuers don’t have to venture overseas to attract foreign capital; investors are coming to... https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3003972/inclusion-chinas-yuan-bonds-global-bond-index-start-game https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3003972/inclusion-chinas-yuan-bonds-global-bond-index-start-game Sun, 31 Mar 2019 02:30:10 +0000 Consumer tastes change quickly in China. Seven years ago, the country imported only about 30 tonnes of avocados, with the Central American fruit an exotic ingredient rarely appearing on Chinese dining tables. Fast-forward to 2017: China bought 32,200 tonnes of the fruit from Chile, Mexico and Peru – enough to make 200 million servings of avocado on toast. Much has been said in recent years about the opulence of China’s new rich, and their outsize impact on anything from Swiss luxury watches to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2164644/how-woo-14-billion-chinese-consumers-who-are https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2164644/how-woo-14-billion-chinese-consumers-who-are Tue, 18 Sep 2018 06:30:15 +0000 Asia’s largest producer of giant windmills. The creator of Africa’s favourite cellphones. And the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence start-up. These are just some examples of the kind of firms that have popped up in China in recent years – the product of a gradual but epochal economic rebalancing that has seen low-tech, heavy-duty manufacturing increasingly superseded by hi-tech innovation and domestic consumption. This story has been largely beyond foreign investors, whose holdings... https://www.scmp.com/business/markets/article/2147014/global-investors-now-precisely-wrong-time-overlook-chinas-market https://www.scmp.com/business/markets/article/2147014/global-investors-now-precisely-wrong-time-overlook-chinas-market Mon, 21 May 2018 03:00:00 +0000 An empty passenger plane lifted off from Shanghai’s international airport on an overcast, windy afternoon earlier this month. Flown by five test pilots in orange jumpsuits, it coasted above the Yangtze River Delta for about an hour before landing back in Pudong. That flight to nowhere, albeit brief, was symbolic. As the first locally built large passenger aircraft, the successful test of the C919 marked a significant milestone in China’s economic transformation as it tries to upgrade its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095771/chinas-hi-tech-economy-taking-shape-thanks-its-entrepreneurs https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095771/chinas-hi-tech-economy-taking-shape-thanks-its-entrepreneurs Sat, 27 May 2017 02:00:29 +0000 Despite the challenges, China's leaders are pushing into the most critical phase of their ambitious reform programme, cautiously unleashing the power of private investment and consumption to breathe new life into the slowing economy. But it will be a tough road. The systems that successfully marshalled the capital to drive China's first phase of growth are being swamped by the more complex economy they helped create. The result has been increasing misallocation of resources and growing... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1588601/short-term-pain-ahead-china-pushes-economic-reforms https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1588601/short-term-pain-ahead-china-pushes-economic-reforms Tue, 09 Sep 2014 07:00:15 +0000