HK Market Operating Smoothly Despite Slump, CE Says

Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday reassured investors that Hong Kong's financial market is running in an orderly and smooth manner, a day after the Hang Seng Index dropped to a 13-year low.

At a meet-the-media session before the weekly Executive Council session, a reporter asked what Lee believed had contributed to Monday's fall, which saw the HSI drop 1,030 points, or 6.36 percent, to finish at 15,180.

Lee noted that there are many uncertainties in the global economy and many factors that affected the outlook for economies around the world. But he said Hong Kong had a long-tested system and strong plans for responding to different contingencies.

“The government is very confident that the systems we have in Hong Kong are effective and resilient. And we will be monitoring the situation so that we will ensure market order and market transactions will go on in accordance with what we expect,” he said.

He was also asked to respond to a poll by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, which found that Lee’s maiden Policy Address last week received a lower popularity rating than the first policy blueprints of his predecessors.

“Of course, all comments or commentaries about government performance will be considered by me," Lee said. "I noted also there are very many positive comments about the performance of the government and also some of the measures we have suggested in the Policy Address."

Meanwhile, the CE said the government would make a decision in due course on what to do about more than 20,000 certificates of exemption for the Covid-19 vaccines that it had sought to invalidate.

The documents were issued by seven doctors suspected of violating the law, but the High Court last Friday ruled that the government has no power to void the papers.

Lee reiterated that the government believed its policies had a legal basis and were drawn up to protect public health. Now that the administration had the court's ruling, Lee said the Health Bureau and the Department of Justice would work on the matter and reach a decision soon.