Singapore Won’t Displace Hong Kong as a Financial Center

Hong Kong’s rapid isolation from the rest of the world has business executives, investors and expatriates asking whether Singapore will overtake the territory as Asia’s main financial center. If that’s the ambition, there’s a lot of ground to cover. A more realistic outcome is that the two locations work as complements, rather than competitors for global talent.

The situation in Hong Kong is deteriorating. Omicron’s spread in recent weeks has upended the government’s zero-Covid strategy, forcing it to impose ever more drastic containment measures as the hospital system teeters. The outbreak is now bigger than the surge in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic. Authorities have had to turn to Beijing not only for medical supplies, but also to help meet basic daily needs as produce disappeared from grocery shelves. One official said over the weekend that the government is in “full-on war mode,” while Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be losing patience.