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00:00What are you hearing on the ground about the situation here in Hong Kong and its future as a financial hub. How deep are the concerns. Thanks for having me. I think the local financial services community is going through a rather challenging time for sure. We're dealing with the last few years social unrest as well as the pandemic as well as geopolitical tensions that's currently happening rising inflation. So we're aware there are a lot of factors at play here. So for the industry I think there is still hope for optimism optimism as China and its financial markets and capital markets continue to open up and reform. I think the industry is holding out to participate in that growth. But certainly we are experiencing a lot of challenges. And we also do see that some of the traditional broker dealers there's more closing down this year compared to the same period last year. So I think the solution is kind of a shift to maybe doing more wealth management and more asset management. Yes overall. But other lawmakers did meet with incoming CEO John Lee. How do you think he's cognizant. Is he aware of what's going on on the ground. One of the biggest factors of course is quarantine and the like here and sort of I suppose murky and opaque. I said roadmaps to normality. Right. I think the industry certainly looks forward to working with chief executive you elect John Lee as well as the new term government. In our conversations with John Lee I think he's expressed that opening border is open and open. Yes it's certainly yeah. He's open to look I think Hong Kong is a very international city. We need to re re establish that and also share this. I think he's Lee certainly very keen on reestablishing this brand and so forth for the financial services industry. I think the border opening at least understanding what the conditions are that needs to be in place to open up. And I think for the short term going through the pandemic it's understandable to have stricter social distancing measures. But given the current term government I think they've realized that the economic impact is quite quite big. So we need to open up as much as possible and to continue in normal commercial activities see clients look at deals and travel. So Robert you seem quite optimistic that Hong Kong can remain a financial hub but the city is facing a brain drain. We have about 160000 people leaving Hong Kong in the first three months of the year. How are you assessing the risk of this brain drain and a talent crunch. Yeah certainly. I think the talent loss is something that the current interim government is cognizant of. And I think former chief executive C.Y. Leung has also said in his remarks that some of these may be temporary. Some some of these are maybe permanent relocation. But I think at the end of the day the most important thing is to make our markets competitive and attractive and having the opportunity the development opportunities will bring people back. So I think it will be the job of the new government and also the lateral members as well as the industry to work together with regulators that change and other stakeholders to make Hong Kong more international and to reinvigorate some of the business that's been lost in the past. There's some chatter out there that Shanghai may take over Hong Kong as a global financial hub. Is that overhyped or is there a possibility that may happen. Well I think Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre is very much ingrained in the central government's policies in a 45 year plan. It's reiterated Hong Kong's position as a renminbi and the net internationalization of renminbi asset management as well as risk management center. So I think what we're going through is quite challenging at the current time. But I don't see Hong Kong being overtaken. I think there's more collaboration as well as a lot of the connecting of markets and opening up and accessing the mainland markets. I think that will continue to be the trend. Robert final question. Who do you think will be the next financial secretary. Will pool Chen remain. Would you like him to remain in place. I believe you have that discussion also with John Lee. And how did he respond to that. Well I think we could actually be to do today. Sure. I think the we're in the middle of a. The plans for the re structuring of the government so there will be a lot of changes as well as the people that I think for Johnny to choose from. I mean I think John Lee is very open to having people that are experienced that can really help him drive the financials industry's development. No specific people that I can name for the time being but we do look forward to working with the new term government.

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Need to Re-establish Hong Kong as International City: Lee

Hong Kong Legislative Council Member for Functional Constituency: Financial Services Robert Lee discusses Hong Kong’s future as a financial hub, incoming Chief Executive John Lee and the city’s talent crunch. Lee speaks on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)

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