HK Financial Summit Will Be Successful: Algernon Yau

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau said on Saturday he is confident that a high-level financial summit in November would be successful - even though Singapore is holding a similar conference around the same time.

Speaking on a TV programme, Yau said the government understood that some top global finance executives who were invited had made quarantine-free travel a precondition to attend the high-level conference in the SAR, but added that the actual arrangements would depend on the situation at the time.

When asked about suggestions that the heads of large financial institutions might instead prefer to attend a similar conference in Singapore held around the same period, the minister expressed confidence in Hong Kong's summit.

"It depends on what similarities large financial institutions see in the conferences being held by Singapore and by us - or which they think is more important. This is a free society. Of course, Hong Kong has its own advantages, and we're confident that this summit will be successful," Yau said.

Yau, who is set to travel to Cambodia to meet other Asean leaders, also underlined the need to tell the Hong Kong story well and set the record straight on the city's actual situation.

He said some reports on the territory were inaccurate, including reports on freedoms in Hong Kong since the implementation of the National Security Law.