The European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong recently reiterated its concerns about the outlook for the city as a business hub, underlining a «lack of certainties» as the key concern.
Davide de Rosa, vice-chair of the chamber, recently spoke about the risk to Hong Kong’s hub status from its decision to maintain tighten Covid-related travel restrictions.
«In this environment, what is going to be very hard for Hong Kong is the lack of certainties,» according to a statement citing de Rosa during a forum last week hosted by Hong Kong-based European research and investor education firm Orientis.
«All the other countries or the major economies are going in totally opposite directions, including Singapore and Korea. As far as Hong Kong lacks certainty, roadmap and timeline, it is going to make things more difficult.»
Hong Kong Covid Policy
De Rosa echoes sentiments already shared by the chamber’s chairman of the board of directors Frederik Gollob in an open letter to Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam in August, alongside similar calls from financial industry group ASIFMA to reopen.
Government officials eventually turned down ASIFMA's pleas, reiterating the city's zero-Covid policy, while following up with tighter rules last month and prioritizing a border opening with mainland China which itself has recently been reportedly hit with a fresh outbreak.
«We think that recent concerns raised by the Government’s health advisors around isolated cases of residents returning to the city and testing positive after a few days of coming out of the quarantine are out of proportion and contribute again to concern within the international community,» Gollob said in the letter.
«This concern amongst the international business community could pose, undoubtedly, a growing threat to Hong Kong’s status as an international business center.»
Free Movement of People
De Rosa underlined the importance for a hub to maintain not only free movement of capital but also free movement of people to maintain competitiveness and attract startup leaders.
He lauded Europe for its mobility between borders but warned about losing centralized control and suggested maintaining relationships between offices by sending a representative from the headquarters to be based in the local units for a period of time.
«If you do not look after your business, eventually your own business will be out of your hands and you will lose control,» de Rosa said.
