A senior financial official said Monday that Hong Kong will further enhance its role as China's international gateway and be a major international financial center in Asia and regional financial services hub in the future.
Sharing his vision for the development of Hong Kong's financial market at a joint chambers of commerce luncheon, Frederick Ma, secretary for financial services and the treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said he saw great potential for the development of Hong Kong's bond market.
He also said he believed Hong Kong would become the region's fund management center as well as center for insurance and reinsurance.
Putting Hong Kong in a historical perspective since 1973, the year of Hong Kong's great stock market boom and bust, Ma said today's doom and gloom were just all the similar challenges and competitions Hong Kong had faced and successfully overcome in the past.
"Much of our future success, like our past success, will depend on Hong Kong's unchanging fundamentals, namely, free flow of capital and information, an independent judiciary based on the rule of law, clean and efficient government, and a simple and low tax regime. Add to this, no exchange controls, transparent regulation and state-of-the-art telecommunications," Ma said.
On the equity market, the secretary said the listing of mainland enterprises had boosted the stock market of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government will continue to encourage this mutually beneficial commercial activity through visits and participation in promotional activities, he added.
Turning to the bond market, which is a star of attraction amid low interest rates and stock market volatility these days, Ma said, "It is an area where I see great potential for development."
In addition, he also positioned Hong Kong as the fund management center of the region.
With insurance being a growth area and a growing and increasingly creative industry in Hong Kong, Ma said the government would continue to encourage this, subject to a light but prudent regulatory framework.
In conclusion, Ma said he saw a great future for Hong Kong as a major international financial center, adding that companies around the world wishing to enter the mainland market will continue to find Hong Kong the perfect place to do business.
(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2002)
