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Opinion | Hong Kong must stem the brain drain resulting from its Covid-19 policies to keep its competitive edge

  • To safeguard Hong Kong’s value as a global finance, trade and transport nexus, it must reverse the loss of people with the expertise, experience and international connections vital to the city’s financial and entrepreneurial health

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A woman walks up a deserted Pottinger Street in Central on February 15. Photo: Nora Tam

Walking around Kennedy Town, Sai Ying Pun, Sheung Wan and Central, one sees an increasing number of shuttered shops, closed businesses and a bewildering variety of “special offers” to entice custom. The lack of tourists seems to have hit Hong Kong businesses hard.

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Locals are more careful with spending given the spectre of unemployment – now 5 per cent – as uncertainties linger over when the Covid-19 nightmare will end. Official retail figures show the general malaise gripping the city; it must not become a downward spiral. We are perhaps at a crossroads where choices made now may have profound consequences later.
In Hong Kong, competition for customers is as intense as it is desperate but the richness of the consumer base has been eroded. The problem is exacerbated by a significant net outflow of expats who are voting with their feet.
This is bad news unless you are attempting to rent or enter the housing market, where prices are falling. We risk entering a cul-de-sac of broken dreams, dashed expectations and lost talent as demoralising travel restrictions, draconian quarantine measures and social distancing rules take their toll.
The recent rule changes are welcome, but for many they are too little, too late while others fear they could reverse under the next chief executive. There is little confidence we are emerging from this Covid-19 “groundhog day” any time soon.
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The lost expats are often well-paid people who have helped oil and grow Hong Kong’s complex business machinery while, at least partially, keeping many shops afloat in the tourist desert.

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