Singapore's Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai, said he believes collaborating with Hong Kong will foster growth and resilience for both Asian financial hubs.
As Wong concluded his first official visit to Hong Kong last week since taking office, he cited in his blog post on Saturday that "the city feels familiar yet renewed, with a clear sense of dynamism and resilience.”
Over his three-day trip, Wong visited the chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu and leaders across the public and private sectors to discuss strengthening deeper ties between the two cities, where he expressed his interest in participating in Hong Kong's latest development, including its five-year plan and the Northern Metropolis project.
Lee also said last Friday, as he received Wong at the Government House, that both cities share the same commitment to free trade, multilateralism and rules-based organizations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
Meanwhile, Singapore is racing to capture more flows of bullion and boost its gold trading business, with Hong Kong also pushing to expand its gold market links with Shanghai.
Chee Hong Tat, deputy chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, announced plans last Friday to turn the city-state into a gold trading hub for Asia, with regulators and industry players working together to strengthen the market's trading, clearing and storage infrastructure.
Chee said this move is not to place bets on price fluctuations in the short term, but to create the ecosystem for gold trading activity based out of Singapore. He believes that the gold exchange can become the new economic backbone of wealth management and asset management.
He added that although there may be competition in certain areas between the two cities, the market segments are not completely identical, so it is big enough for both markets to coexist and to grow in their respective services.
Staff reporter and Reuters
