Hong Kong's finance sector to benefit from AI, China opening, Asia wealth: think tank
Advertisement
Hong Kong's markets will play a big role in helping companies raise funds, while the liberalisation of China's financial sector would strengthen the city's role as a link between the mainland and the rest of the world, said Benjamin Hung Pi-cheng.
Additionally, the growing wealth of Asian business families could spur them to set up family offices in the city to invest and engage in succession planning, the veteran banker said.
'Overall, Hong Kong has a lot of growth opportunities,' Hung said in his first media briefing since becoming the chairman of the government think tank in January. 'What we need to do is to tell the world more about the real picture of Hong Kong.'
The rise of DeepSeek has proved to be a catalyst for Hong Kong's stock market. Photo: AFP
Hung, who is also the international president of Standard Chartered, said many people overseas viewed the city in a negative light mainly due to what he called misleading media reports that said Hong Kong had lost its verve and freedoms.
Advertisement
'FSDC members will go on roadshows to tell the real story of Hong Kong,' Hung said. He said the ongoing market rally made it a good time to promote the city, as sentiment had improved substantially since China announced a stimulus package to support the economy in September, which was followed by DeepSeek's momentum-boosting breakthrough in January.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Where is DeepSeek's next AI model? Speculation rises after OpenAI unveils GPT-5
China's leading artificial intelligence start-up, DeepSeek , finds itself at the centre of speculation about the release of its next-generation R2 reasoning model, following OpenAI 's launch of its GPT-5 model last week. DeepSeek – which made waves in the industry with its V3 model in December and the R1 model in January – has not introduced major updates to its products in the past months, aside from two minor revisions. While the market had expected DeepSeek to introduce a new foundation model within months of R1's release, the Hangzhou-based start-up – founded by computer scientist Liang Wenfeng as a side project of his quantitative trading firm – has yet to announce a schedule for the launch of the R2 model. DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Developing and training an advanced model is an expensive and complex task, requiring substantial computing resources and training data, as well as sophisticated algorithms. It took OpenAI two and a half years to release GPT-5 after launching GPT-4 in March 2023. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Photo: Reuters According to a report by The Financial Times on Thursday, DeepSeek has delayed the launch of its new model owing to challenges in training it with Huawei Technologies' Ascend AI chips. The start-up has faced 'persistent technical issues' during the process, said the report, which cited an unidentified source.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Singapore's richest man dies at 98: Goh Cheng Liang's journey to Nippon Paint tycoon
Towards the end of his life, Goh Cheng Liang was known as the richest Singaporean, owning some of the world's most luxurious superyachts, but his humble beginnings left an indelible mark on the elusive paint tycoon and spurred his philanthropic efforts. He died on Tuesday at the age of 98. Goh, the founder of Wuthelam Group which owns close to a 60 per cent stake in Nippon Paint Holdings, and – according to Forbes – had an estimated net worth of US$13 billion (S$16.7 billion), died with family members by his side, Wuthelam said in a release. Born in Singapore in 1928, Goh spent the first 12 years of his life in a rented room of a River Valley shophouse with his parents, three sisters and a brother. He chose the location as the site to make one of his most iconic property developments, Liang Court, in the early 1980s. It was the first shopping centre along River Valley Road, now a nightlife hotspot in the city state. He hired former politician Ker Sin Tze to be in charge of the Liang Court project. Ker told This Week in Asia: 'I once asked him: 'Why River Valley, why not find a piece of land in Orchard Road?' but he said no, that area is where he was born and grew up and now that he had made it he wanted to develop there.' Ker, who worked for Goh between 1980 and 1992, before joining politics and becoming a minister of state, called Goh a helpful and patient boss. 'I was not familiar with property development, but he said, 'Well, you can learn on the job'.'
South China Morning Post
6 days ago
- South China Morning Post
New normal: why Hong Kong's commercial property deep-freeze is here to stay
In the second instalment of our two-part series on Hong Kong's beleaguered property market, analysts explore why this slump is different from past downturns. The first instalment discussed how the resurgence of the city's stock market as a venue for initial public offerings could boost office uptake and ease developers' pain. Advertisement Swiss bank UBS got a steal in 2003 when it leased 146,000 sq ft across six floors in Two International Finance Centre – then the tallest building in Hong Kong – for less than HK$20 (US$2.55) per square foot. The landlords, MTR Corp and a consortium led by Sun Hung Kai Properties, signed the 10-year agreement as the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) was ravaging an already weak market. Fast-forward a decade, and UBS had to pay five times more to extend the lease, thanks to a booming office market amid a blazing-hot economy. Property owners trying to ride out the current slump in the city's commercial property market may find such tales comforting. However, history does not seem likely to repeat itself this time, according to analysts. 'Hong Kong real estate for about 20 to 25 years was one way – up – with past crises like the 1997-1998 and 2008 financial crises and Sars in 2003 affecting the sector like a blip,' said Goodwin Gaw, chairman and co-founder of Gaw Capital , a Hong Kong-based private-equity firm with a focus on real estate. Advertisement The current slump breaks that paradigm. 'This downturn presents challenges unlike any seen since the 1990s,' said Henry Chan, a commercial real estate economist at Capital Economics. 'The market is grappling with simultaneous structural and cyclical headwinds, leading to a prolonged decline in property values. A return to the peak levels seen in 2018 seems improbable within the next decade.'
