Paul Chan: GBA Offers Best Of New York, San Francisco

Financial Secretary Paul Chan has told international business leaders that the Greater Bay Area can combine the best of San Francisco and New York, as he hailed the opening up of Hong Kong and the mainland.

Continuing his visit to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Tuesday, Chan met executives from Bloomberg, Lenovo and Envision, as well as senior managers from financial institutions in Japan and Europe, his office said on Wednesday.

In a speech at the Davos-Caixin CEO Luncheon on the theme of "unleashing the full potential of Asia", Chan told guests Hong Kong was “back to business” and “quickly returning to normalcy”.

“The mainland is also opening up faster than expected, which provides impetus for better growth prospects for the world this year and beyond,” he said.

He told delegates that the Greater Bay Area initiative would bring together Hong Kong’s financial hub status and its skills in research and development with the concentration of tech companies and advanced manufacturing in nearby cities.

Chan said linking an international financial centre with an innovation and technology hub would mean the Greater Bay Area was “in a way like combining the strengths of the New York Bay Area and the San Francisco Bay”.

The FS also said Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre would help the nation in its pursuit of high-quality development and its green transition.

“Under the "one country, two systems" policy, Hong Kong is the only place where the China advantages and the world advantages converge,” Chan said.

Chan's office said the financial secretary also participated in a special address delivered to the forum by Vice Premier Liu He.