Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said Hong Kong's remarkable economic development during the past 20 years would have been impossible without the nation's constant support.[Special coverage]
"Hong Kong has overcome many difficulties and achieved good economic performance since the reunification with motherland in 1997," the financial secretary said.
According to official figures, Hong Kong's GDP in 2016 was HK$2.5 trillion ($320 billion), an 81 percent nominal increase from that in 1997. Government's fiscal reserve nearly reached HK$1 trillion ($128 billion) by the end of March, more than double the amount 20 years ago.
"Our GDP per capita is more than $44,000, a 60 percent increase compared with 1997 and higher than that in Japan and some European countries, " Chan said. "We have created over 600,000 jobs during the past two decades and the employment figure is now about 3.8 miilion."
The SAR government also attached great importance to the improvement of people's livelihood, increasing spending on social welfare by over 70 percent during the last 20 years, Chan added.
The number of Hong Kong's listed companies has risen to around 2,000 from 650 in 1997, 65 percent of which are mainland enterprises. And mainland companies contribute to more than 70 percent of the daily trading volume in Hong Kong's stock market, Chan said.
"Our nation's economic take-off since the reform and opening-up has provided vast opportunity for Hong Kong to develop as an international financial center and we are very grateful for that," he said.
According to Chan, Hong Kong's economy suffered a lot after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and SARS in 2003, which dampened people's spirits.
"The property prices fell by over 60 percent and everyone was very pessimistic," Chan said. "In order to inject impetus to Hong Kong's economy, the central government put out the individual visit scheme in 2003, lifting our economy from a gloomy state and bringing confidence to all of us."
The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) has strengthened Hong Kong's economic connection with the mainland and provided great opportunities for local companies and professionals to explore the mainland market, the financial secretary added.
Chan said the economic development miracle achieved by China since the reform and opening-up has surprised the whole world and the role Hong Kong played in national development also changed subtly.
"Hong Kong investors contributed to a major part of the foreign investment in mainland and many foreign investors used to go into the mainland through us at the early stage of the reform and opening-up." Chan said. "But now foreign investment can be made directly to the mainland and many mainland companies have a strong desire to go out and invest with a bulging wallet."
As a "super connector", the secretary said, Hong Kong would love to use its expertise in risk management through decades of experience in international trade to support mainland investors' overseas projects.
"We are very happy to see our country's remarkable achievements made in the past and I'm pretty sure that Hong Kong could grasp new opportunities from national macro development plans, including the Belt and Road Initiative and the 13th Five-Year Plan." Chan showed great confidence in Hong Kong's development prospect.
Hong Kong could take advantage of its role as an international financial center to support the infrastructure construction under the Belt and Road Initiative, according to Chan.
"We have a rather robust financial management and regulation system thanks to past decades' development and we have also set up an Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office in the Monetary Authority, all of which could play a positive role in fund raising and asset management while making investments along the Belt and Road," he said.
"We would like to build Hong Kong into a global asset and wealth management center through our enhanced interconnection with the mainland financial market," Chan added.
Besides maintaining and improving the traditional advantage, Chan also stressed the necessity to explore growth potential in emerging industry to create more job opportunities for young people.
"We founded the Innovation and Technology Bureau in late 2015 and our government planned to invest HK$28 billion ($3.6 billion) last year to create a more friendly environment for innovation technology's development," Chan added.
It is mentioned in the 13th Five-Year Plan that besides consolidating and improving Hong Kong's traditional role as the international financial, shipping and trade center, central government will help Hong Kong develop into the world's largest off-shore renminbi hub, which Chan thought is a special opportunity.
"Hong Kong has the world's largest off-shore renminbi capital pool with hundreds of billions of off-shore renminbi here. More than 70 percent of overseas renminbi payment is made through Hong Kong, which not only means a growth chance for Hong Kong, but could push forward the internationalization of renminbi by making Hong Kong a firewall and test-field to make financial risks controllable," the financial secretary said.
Facing the reality that Hong Kong's economic volume constitutes a declining percentage of that of the whole nation, which Chan said indicated the country's uprising as an emerging economic power, he has faith in Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability with all the convenient policies given by the central government under the principal of one country, two systems.
