Hong Kong leader John Lee shrugs off absence of at least 3 top bankers from key financial summit, insists city ‘full of vigour and energy’
- Chief executive touts raft of events city will host in coming two weeks, including Hong Kong Sevens and an Asian global health summit
- Lee says economic activities are returning and unemployment rate has remained low despite ongoing recession
Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu has shrugged off concerns over at least three top bankers pulling out of the city’s first mega financial summit since the Covid-19 pandemic began, as he struck a cautiously optimistic tone on a return to normality.
Speaking to the press before his weekly Executive Council meeting, the chief executive noted that two bankers had pulled out of the three-day event – which began on Tuesday – after coming down with Covid-19, while a third had changed his schedule and would not visit Asia.
“It’s just a small number,” Lee stressed. “What we have seen now is that more than 200 people will attend and that is within our expectation.”
Lee went on to list a raft of events the city would host in the next two weeks, including the Hong Kong Sevens weekend rugby tournament, as well as an Asian global health summit to be held on November 10 and 11.
“Hong Kong is full of vigour and energy,” he said, adding the government was committed to hosting more activities while reconnecting the city with the outside world as much as possible amid the pandemic.
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The Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit is seen as a vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s reopening, with the city only recently emerging from Covid’s shadow after nearly three years of being closed off from the world amid strict travel curbs.
Tough hotel quarantine measures, lasting as long as 21 days at one point, effectively cut off many international business exchanges, until the policy was scrapped in September and replaced by a three-day medical surveillance under which travellers are allowed limited citywide movement.
The two leading bankers absent due to Covid are Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Blackstone president John Gray, while Barclays group CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan pulled out following a change of itinerary.
Capital Group CEO Timothy Armour also reportedly dropped out for health reasons on Tuesday at noon, soon after Lee met the press. Armour was due to talk on a panel on Thursday, and his name was removed in the latest itinerary.
Speaking to the press outside the airport, Chan said he hopes to attend the summit on Wednesday personally if his polymerase chain reaction test returns negative. He will wait for the result at home.
He added that “it is understandable” that four top bankers could not make it due to Covid infections and personal reasons, but assured that the summit earns a lot of support from international guests.
Lee earlier stressed on Tuesday that his finance chief would enjoy no exemptions and undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on arrival. Chan will have to isolate himself if he tests positive.
Week of large-scale events shows Hong Kong is ‘open for business’: treasury chief
The chief executive gave his assurance that economic activities had resumed with the pandemic situation under control locally, while the city’s unemployment rate had remained low, despite a 4.5 per cent shrinkage in the economy in the third quarter compared with a year ago, as announced on Monday.
Among the latest figures, total exports dropped 15.5 per cent in the third quarter from a year ago, deteriorating from the 8.4 per cent decrease in the previous quarter.
“Hong Kong is an outward-facing economy so the global economy definitely has an impact,” Lee said, addressing the dip.
He added that exports fell because foreign currencies had weakened against the Hong Kong dollar, while some countries had also imposed stringent monetary policies to deal with inflation at home.
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Lee pointed out he had already pledged HK$600 million (US$76.4 million) in his recent policy address to back the local tourism industry in hosting domestic tours centred on heritage or green initiatives.
Lee also said since hotel quarantine was axed, the number of inbound foreign travellers had gone up by 2.3 times in a month, which was a good sign.
“We hope that as we organise more activities, our economy will go back up internally,” he said.
Data from the Immigration Department showed the number of daily inbound foreign travellers hovered slightly above 1,200 in recent days. This is a notable surge from the roughly 400 daily foreign arrivals recorded days before the removal of the hotel quarantine in September.
But the latest number still fell way short of the near 10,000 foreign inbound travellers the city used to get in January 2020, soon after the first Covid-19 case reached the city.
Hong Kong on Tuesday reported 4,418 coronavirus cases of which 437 were imported, as well as 13 more related deaths. The city’s Covid-19 tally stands at 1,923,126 cases and 10,410 related fatalities.
