Hong Kong, Singapore leaders discuss Asian growth, dismiss ‘rivalry’ talk

Hong Kong’s finance chief Paul Chan says strong collaboration with Asean – of which Singapore is a part – is a key plank of city’s economic policy

Singapore and Hong Kong’s economies are closely intertwined, and development of one does not have to be at the expense of the other, minister K. Shanmugam adds

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Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po meets Singapore’s Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam at the sidelines of SCMP’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2023. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:27pm, 29 Mar 2023Updated: 12:24am, 30 Mar 2023

Hong Kong and Singapore each have unique strengths as Asia’s most consequential financial hubs, and the view that they are locked in a zero-sum rivalry is a result of media hype, leaders of the two cities said on Wednesday.

The relationship between the two cities was in sharp focus at the China Conference: Southeast Asia 2023, the first major overseas forum organised by the Post since 2019.

Top Singapore minister K. Shanmugam, one of the headline speakers at the conference, said both cities benefited from each other’s growth, and “the suggestion that Singapore has supplanted or is supplanting Hong Kong gives too much weight to short-term factors”.

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, also a keynote speaker, described Asia as the “region of tomorrow”, saying strong collaboration with the 10-nation Asean bloc, which Singapore is a part of, was a key plank of the city’s – and mainland China’s – economic policy.

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po at the Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia on March 29, 2023, in Singapore. Photo: Handout

The Hong Kong financial tsar made a strong pitch for the city boosting its status not just as the natural international financial hub for mainland companies, but also among firms from overseas which are in emerging sectors within the so-called new economy.