Hong Kong urged to boost industry support

Singapore's economy could surpass Hong Kong's over the next three decades amid government support for local industries, a top Chinese economist has warned.

As a free economy, Hong Kong's per capita gross domestic product was 70 percent higher than Singapore's in the 1980s, but is now 30 percent lower, Justin Lin Yifu, a former World Bank economist and current director of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University told a think tank forum.

He attributed to this change to the support extended by Singapore's government to local industries.

Lin pointed out that Singapore's industrial structure was similar to Hong Kong's between the fifties and seventies, when Hong Kong was not only a financial center but also a large manufacturing hub.

However, in the process of economic transformation, Hong Kong's manufacturing industry declined as the city mainly concentrated on financial services, trade and tourism.

Meanwhile, Singapore has actively supported the development of local manufacturing industries and services, he said..

The country currently has strong financial service and manufacturing sectors as well as powerful biotechnology, pharmaceutical and electronic technologies, and therefore could surpass Hong Kong in 20 to 30 years, he said.

Lin believes that to make Hong Kong's economy continue to grow fast, the government should continue to support the services sector and the development of the manufacturing industry.

Hong Kong has in the past maintained dynamic economic growth if it boosts its services and manufacturing prowess and enters international markets, Lin believes it can surpass Singapore again.

Lin was previously a policymaker in China during the noughties and a senior vice president at the World Bank from 2008 to 2012.