Hong Kong’s finance chief has called for deeper cooperation and greater dialogue with Europe despite disagreements on some issues, saying engagement is crucial amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.
Writing in his weekly blog on Sunday after a five-day trip to France, Belgium and Switzerland, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said European political and business leaders were increasingly seeking strategic autonomy, diversified partnerships and stronger economic resilience in response to geopolitical tensions and rising unilateralism.
“We see pragmatic opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between Hong Kong and Europe in areas including trade, investment and innovation and technology,” he wrote.
Chan said exchanges with European financial institutions suggested strong interest in Hong Kong, including its investment opportunities, cross-border regulatory cooperation and financial innovation initiatives.
“Representatives from the [European] financial sector pointed out that their current asset allocations were overly weighted towards US dollar assets, creating a problem of excessive risk concentration,” he added.
While Europeans “possessed wealth amounting to tens of trillions of euros and ranked among the world’s highest in savings rates”, much of the money remained parked in “conservative” bank deposits and fixed-income markets with modest returns instead of being channelled into innovation and growth industries, he said.
