We heard a whole string of pitches, right, from all these policymakers, John
Lee's keynote speech talking about directly to you that you need to look
forward and Hong Kong is back in business.
Do you buy it? Hong Kong's hugging never went out of
business. Hong Kong has been great.
We've had it, Senator. We've actually had a very good year in
Hong Kong this year with that record corners with record income, because the
underlying Hong Kong economy is actually very strong.
Of course, the Covid restrictions and the the inability for Chinese travelers
would be the tourists or business people to come into.
Hong Kong has had a real impact on all sorts of things.
But the underlying economy is strong. And once we get past this Covid phase,
and I do think we're getting past it certainly in Hong Kong, and then I think
eventually I hope in China, Hong Kong will be back on fire so that Hong Kong
is fully here. But at the same time, a number of people
while I've been here many times during the pandemic, a number of my colleagues,
compatriots from from other financial institutions, they're coming back for
the first time in three years. And they've heard a lot about problems
in Hong Kong. And I think to come here and actually
see, of course, their problems and problems in London where I live and the
problems in Europe where I'm from. But the problems are manageable and the
problems in Hong Kong are manageable as well.
Right. Priorities for the business now, given
that? Well, I guess in some ways you've done
well because rates are a little bit higher, I guess, in some ways, too.
What's the outlook for the economy? What else do you need to hear from
policymakers? You're right.
The rising rates have been very good for us, as I think it has been for most of
the banks. But we've we've had sort of record
quarters of income growth and only about half of that has come from from interest
rates. The other half has been coming from all
the other good things that are happening.
Of course, we're center chartered, operates across Asia, Middle East and
Africa. There are some real hotspots of trouble
for sure. But broadly, this is where the growth is
in the world. Growth is looking quite good in this
part of the world and the growth outlook is good.
I mean, we're just going to continue to focus on serving our clients in these
markets as they reconnect. And there are a lot of reconnection that
need to happen following the pandemic and the supply chain reconfiguration
that we're going to keep on doing that. And I think we'll all be fine.
What do you think? Hong Kong still needs to elevate its
standing from here and maybe restore it that that status of being Asia's
financial hub. Do you think the krona, Mr Asian, is
moving fast enough that they're moving fast?
We know that until Hong Kong is completely open the way many, most other
countries in the world are right now, that there's going to be some impediment
to international travel. I think the small silver lining of
what's happened in Hong Kong is the real estate prices have become a little bit
less crazy. So it's a little bit more affordable.
It's not cheap in Hong Kong, but other places have also gotten quite expensive.
So those things that have held Hong Kong back in the past, which is at the
expense and obviously then during the Covid are feeling a little bit better
relatively. So if we can sweep the rest of that away
and obviously that a very clear message from the Chinese
regulators from this. Yes, I see us are seeing to see the IOC
and the People's Bank of China, who were all very clear about the role that Hong
Kong plays in the Chinese financial ecosystem.
It is the I don't know the exact words primary major, very important financial
hub, international financial hub for China.
And given China's importance to world trade and to economic growth in the
world, that's a really nice place to be. So I think Hong Kong has this tremendous
advantage in terms of being uniquely positioned of China.
And Hong Kong will have to fight with the rest of the major financial centers
in Asia to to maintain its position as a dominant regional financial hub.
I can see this as a bank that operates in every country in Asia.
We don't mind the fact that everybody's trying to get better all the time.
In fact, we love the fact that every country in Asia, or at least many of
them, are trying to get better all the time because they are getting better all
the time. And you know, this conversation around
Singapore versus Hong Kong, Singapore and Hong Kong, I do not make my guess is
if both do well, you do well as well. Have you had to make that allocation of
staff between the two? Because of where it was, it's easier to
operate. And how do you think that story goes?
Not at Hong Kong. It's reopening here.
You don't see it as a trade off at all. I mean, of course, we have had a big
operation in Hong Kong. We have a big operation in Singapore, as
we do in China and elsewhere in Asia. Talent is short in the world, tells us
short everywhere in the world. It's short in London, New York, Paris,
Rio de Janeiro. And it's very short in Hong Kong and
Singapore because these are extremely attractive places to work.
So we take the best people with the best skills and we try to put them into place
where they can be most effective, which also has something to do with where they
want to live. Thankfully, we've got plenty people that
want to live in Hong Kong even more will want to live in Hong Kong one year and
have to test on arrival, just to be very blunt about it.
And you've got plenty of people that want to live in Singapore.
So, no, it's not a trade off. It's it's more a matter of seeing if we
can just keep both going at the kind of pace that they're going all the time.
Can you meaningfully higher? Sorry, a higher.
And retain talent here in the city, though, if you know, China is a real its
borders with Hong Kong. You know, that whole era of being that
gateway to China hasn't quite been rejected.
It was hard. It is hard.
But Hong Kong still is our gateway into and
out of China. So we still do a lot of our Hong Kong
business. Is China linked?
It gets harder and harder the longer people can travel.
We've had many of my colleagues have ventured into the mainland.
They've done whatever the quarantine routine is.
They've stayed for a while. So it's just that the connections have
been completely separate. And of course, we all have these lovely
machines that you have in front of you that connect us digitally.
But. But the longer it goes on, the more
there's a feeling of disconnection that we're all keen to put behind us.