https://www.scmp.com/rss/502797/feed James A. Fok is a veteran financial and strategic adviser to corporations and governments, who served as a senior executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing during a decade of rapid internationalisation in China’s capital markets. He is the author of the recently published book, "Financial Cold War". For more information, see jamesafok.com. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Tsingtao Brewery’s initial public offering 30 years ago marked the first mainland Chinese listing in Hong Kong and set the city on a path that would transform it from a small regional market to one of the world’s leading financial centres. Three decades later, Hong Kong’s market has diversified very little, and remains heavily reliant on the listing and trading of mainland companies, which now account for close to 80 per cent of market capitalisation and almost 90 per cent of turnover. Slower... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3222817/how-monopolistic-hong-kong-stock-market-can-turn-its-achilles-heel-advantage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3222817/how-monopolistic-hong-kong-stock-market-can-turn-its-achilles-heel-advantage?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:15:11 +0000 Across the spectrum of recent public discussion about de-dollarisation, commentators have tended to focus on negative factors and ramifications. American monetary profligacy, fiscal incoherence and the weaponisation of the dollar, are driving other countries to settle bilateral trade in their own currencies and encouraging central bank reserve allocations to gold. Counterarguments against the greenback’s demise tend to focus on its entrenched status and the absence of credible alternatives.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3219097/more-global-yuan-not-zero-sum-game-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3219097/more-global-yuan-not-zero-sum-game-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 May 2023 16:30:18 +0000 A covert visit by US Treasury Secretary William Simon to Saudi Arabia in July 1974 radically transformed global energy and financial security. An ensuing deal, under which the Middle East kingdom agreed to finance US government deficits in return for American military aid and equipment, laid the foundation for decades of economic growth and prosperity, and extended the dollar’s linchpin role in international financial markets. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s coming tour of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3206748/how-hong-kong-leaders-middle-east-tour-could-herald-seismic-shift-china-saudi-arabia-relationship?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3206748/how-hong-kong-leaders-middle-east-tour-could-herald-seismic-shift-china-saudi-arabia-relationship?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:45:12 +0000 Much ink has been spilled speculating over the longer-term consequences for the US dollar of the unprecedented financial sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of military action in Ukraine. Will it lead the world to de-dollarise? And will it contribute to greater international adoption of the renminbi? Perhaps. But these lines of discussion miss a more profound point: what do we risk by weaponising the global financial commons? In conventional warfare, there is a long-established principle of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3180619/why-it-us-interests-give-its-dollar-privilege-forge-more-neutral?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3180619/why-it-us-interests-give-its-dollar-privilege-forge-more-neutral?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Jun 2022 14:00:21 +0000 November 12 marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of Hong Kong’s Tracker Fund. It was the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) to list in the region and the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Asia excluding Japan at the time. It remains the largest and most liquid ETF in the Hong Kong market, and a popular and low-cost vehicle for investors to gain exposure to a broad spectrum of Hong Kong-listed companies. Product innovations such as this have helped Hong Kong develop into Asia’s leading... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037438/stay-top-hkex-must-diversify-and-innovate-search-more-successes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037438/stay-top-hkex-must-diversify-and-innovate-search-more-successes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Nov 2019 09:00:12 +0000