Expert Discounts Fear Of Shenzhen Eclipsing HK

An economic expert on Monday played down fears that Beijing's plan to boost Shenzhen's legal, financial, medical and social sectors will threaten Hong Kong's status as an international finance centre.

Under the plan announced over the weekend, the central government said Shenzhen will play “a key role” in science and technology innovation in the Greater Bay Area and will also be granted favourable policies including privileges in yuan internationalisation.

According to the development goal, Shenzhen is to become a modern, international and innovative city by 2025 and a leading global city by the middle of this century.

But Andy Kwan, who is the director of the ACE Centre for Business and Economic Research, said Shenzhen eclipsing Hong Kong as a financial centre is remote as the SAR has many advantages over the mainland city.

"It is very difficult to build something as a financial centre. Yes, you can build something as an international, hi-tech city, like even a Silicon Valley Asia," he said.

But it is difficult to build a financial centre as the mainland has capital control in place, he said. Kwan said that not only does Hong Kong not have capital control, it also has a very good common law legal system.

"The [mainland] system itself deviates a lot from the Western countries, especially in terms of law and order. So in this case, I don't think people should fear that Shenzhen will overtake Hong Kong."