Hong Kong Seeks Closer Integration With Mainland China – Lam

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam says the strategy to strengthen the city’s global financial hub status is through greater integration with mainland China.

Addressing a financial forum in Beijing, Lam said Contributing to China’s financial reform and opening will inject fresh vigour into Hong Kong’s economy now that Beijing has helped restore ‘stability’ in the city.

There have bene growing concerns among many non-Chinese investors in Hong Kong over what they see as vanishing rights and freedoms in the city after Beijing’s imposition of a sweeping national security law in response to mass 2019 protests.

The former British colony’s high degree of autonomy from Beijing, including an independent judiciary, form the bedrock on which it has flourished as a global hub.

While many investors still see access to the vast China markets as an important draw, others have been reconsidering their presence in Hong Kong.

Lam said Hong Kong can play key roles in promoting China’s financial development, including facilitating yuan internationalisation, helping finance mainland companies, and providing an offshore safe haven for Chinese money.

She said Hong Kong has never been absent from the country’s reform and opening, providing capital, technology and talents,adding that the city “will serve China’s needs while injecting fresh vigour into Hong Kong’s economy.”