Financial sector has crucial Bay Area role, Lam says

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will be a model of financial development for the nation and the world, with the financial sectors having an incomparable role to play in achieving the free movement of people, capital and information throughout the region, said Chief Executive Carrie Lam Yuet-ngor.

The integration of “one country, two systems and three different customs areas, currencies and legal systems” will have the Bay Area shining on the global stage, Lam said at the Greater Bay Area Financial Forum on Wednesday during a half-day meeting on “Innovation Development and Financial Services Facilitation”.

“The Bay Area — a window of Chinese financial development — turns out to be the centerpiece in promoting overall economic growth,” Lam said.

Total bank savings in the Bay Area are $4.1 trillion, as much as 16 percent of China’s total, Lam said. In the insurance sector, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao’s insurance premium income is approximately $116 billion, equivalent to a quarter of the nation’s total. And in equities, the market capitalization of the Hong Kong and Shenzhen bourses climbed to more than $7.3 trillion, making it the third-largest globally, Lam explained.

The forum, co-organized by the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, the Chinese Banking Association of Hong Kong and Bank of China (Hong Kong), gathered top regulators and participants throughout the banking and financial services industries.

BOCHK Chairman Chen Siqing said: “To promote the development of the Bay Area, we must stick with three principles: emphasizing people’s well-being, being innovationdriven and engaging in winwin cooperation”.

He also emphasized the role of industrial finance, technological finance, social finance, and special finance in helping the area to become a worldclass city cluster as well as playing a key role in economic diversification and globalization.

Last month, the Stateowned bank launched a “Bay Area diversified financial services scheme”, covering payment, financing and financial service businesses, which will enhance the financial capability within the region, he added.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the special administrative region government has budgeted HK$500 million to “underpin the development of the fintech industry”, with the aim of transforming the Bay Area into an international technological hub.

Regarding the goal of achieving free flow of all factors, especially people, capital and information, Charles Li Xiaojia, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, said people flow is the hardest one to tackle, and suggested that artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies could help in the future.

Going forward, Lam said the forum will focus on the free flow of production factors, reinforcing Hong Kong’s financial advantages, intensifying innovative resources and providing major support to the Belt and Road Initiative.