Can rivals Hong Kong and Singapore work together rather than just face off over who deserves the title of Asia’s top financial centre?
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and a leading academic in Singapore have, in the past 10 days, made conciliatory comments about using the synergies of the two cities rather than just competing against each other.
The tussles between the two economic powerhouses are well known, with each trying to outdo the other, through tax breaks and incentives to attract bulge-bracket investment banks and international fund managers to their shores.
But Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and previously Singapore’s ambassador to the United Nations, said both cities could achieve a lot if they worked together.
“We can do a lot together because our strengths are complimentary. Hong Kong, for example, clearly understands China and North Asia very well. Singapore understands Southeast Asia and South Asia very well there is some overlapping but we serve different regions,” he said in Hong Kong last week.
Mahbubani’s comments came just a few days after Tsang, who was in the Lion City to attend the Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders’ summit, called for greater regional co-operation to strengthen financial institutions in Asia, with Hong Kong and Singapore leading the way. Tsang, who was giving a lecture at the Singapore Management University, said Asia would not prosper if major financial centres such as Singapore and Hong Kong did not work together.
“We cannot build the Asian region without strong partnerships,” Tsang said.
“Certainly, Hong Kong and Singapore will be in the thick of the action. As leading financial centres in the region, both cities have major roles to play.”
Mahbubani suggested education was one sector where the two cities could come together and benefit from the other’s talent pool.
“I think if Hongkongers come to Singapore they will get a different view of the world; likewise I believe Singaporeans would benefit from coming to Hong Kong. So there should be exchanges at the university to university level, school to school level, and then we would begin to understand each other.”
He said the elites of the two cities were not interacting enough.
“I travel all over the world and meet people from New York, London and Paris, but I hardly meet people from Hong Kong, which is puzzling.
“I think there is something missing in Hong Kong-Singapore relations.”
Mahbubani agreed with Tsang’s assertion that both Hong Kong and Singapore had a major role to play in the development of North Asia and Southeast Asia.
“I agree with Tsang. More can be done and more should be done, and I think the education sector is a place to start off with,” he said.
Mahbubani said there was enough room for the two financial centres to thrive and grow.
“The region is big enough that we need several financial centres.”
Commenting on Hong Kong’s rivalry with Shanghai and the role both cities can play in the development of financial services on the mainland, Mahbubani was confident that Hong Kong could be the international face of China.
A few months ago, the State Council announced its decision to develop Shanghai as an international financial centre by 2020, a move which could endanger Hong Kong’s status as a global financial centre.
He said Shanghai’s rise should not make Hong Kong nervous, as the mainland economy is big enough to accommodate both cities’ ambitions to become the best in providing financial services.
“The challenge for Hong Kong is that you cannot have it both ways,” Mahbubani said.
“On the one hand, Hong Kong wants to exert its independence and autonomy, which is reasonable, but if you are the Chinese government and want to decide where your financial centre is going to be, do you want to put your financial centre in a place which says, ‘Hey, I want to be autonomous, independent’ or do you want to put a financial centre in a place which says, ‘I am part of China’?”
Still, Hong Kong will prosper whether or not it is China’s leader in financial services, he says.
2 comments:
Who says HK and Singapore can’t co-operate?
Mukul Munish
22 November 2009
Can rivals Hong Kong and Singapore work together rather than just face off over who deserves the title of Asia’s top financial centre?
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and a leading academic in Singapore have, in the past 10 days, made conciliatory comments about using the synergies of the two cities rather than just competing against each other.
The tussles between the two economic powerhouses are well known, with each trying to outdo the other, through tax breaks and incentives to attract bulge-bracket investment banks and international fund managers to their shores.
But Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and previously Singapore’s ambassador to the United Nations, said both cities could achieve a lot if they worked together.
“We can do a lot together because our strengths are complimentary. Hong Kong, for example, clearly understands China and North Asia very well. Singapore understands Southeast Asia and South Asia very well there is some overlapping but we serve different regions,” he said in Hong Kong last week.
Mahbubani’s comments came just a few days after Tsang, who was in the Lion City to attend the Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders’ summit, called for greater regional co-operation to strengthen financial institutions in Asia, with Hong Kong and Singapore leading the way. Tsang, who was giving a lecture at the Singapore Management University, said Asia would not prosper if major financial centres such as Singapore and Hong Kong did not work together.
“We cannot build the Asian region without strong partnerships,” Tsang said.
“Certainly, Hong Kong and Singapore will be in the thick of the action. As leading financial centres in the region, both cities have major roles to play.”
Mahbubani suggested education was one sector where the two cities could come together and benefit from the other’s talent pool.
“I think if Hongkongers come to Singapore they will get a different view of the world; likewise I believe Singaporeans would benefit from coming to Hong Kong. So there should be exchanges at the university to university level, school to school level, and then we would begin to understand each other.”
He said the elites of the two cities were not interacting enough.
“I travel all over the world and meet people from New York, London and Paris, but I hardly meet people from Hong Kong, which is puzzling.
“I think there is something missing in Hong Kong-Singapore relations.”
Mahbubani agreed with Tsang’s assertion that both Hong Kong and Singapore had a major role to play in the development of North Asia and Southeast Asia.
“I agree with Tsang. More can be done and more should be done, and I think the education sector is a place to start off with,” he said.
Mahbubani said there was enough room for the two financial centres to thrive and grow.
“The region is big enough that we need several financial centres.”
Commenting on Hong Kong’s rivalry with Shanghai and the role both cities can play in the development of financial services on the mainland, Mahbubani was confident that Hong Kong could be the international face of China.
A few months ago, the State Council announced its decision to develop Shanghai as an international financial centre by 2020, a move which could endanger Hong Kong’s status as a global financial centre.
He said Shanghai’s rise should not make Hong Kong nervous, as the mainland economy is big enough to accommodate both cities’ ambitions to become the best in providing financial services.
“The challenge for Hong Kong is that you cannot have it both ways,” Mahbubani said.
“On the one hand, Hong Kong wants to exert its independence and autonomy, which is reasonable, but if you are the Chinese government and want to decide where your financial centre is going to be, do you want to put your financial centre in a place which says, ‘Hey, I want to be autonomous, independent’ or do you want to put a financial centre in a place which says, ‘I am part of China’?”
Still, Hong Kong will prosper whether or not it is China’s leader in financial services, he says.
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