Andrew Yao Cho-faiYao Cho-fai is a Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman, executive director and chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Shanghai Alliance Holdings. Hong Kong could be a key international renminbi centre by setting up a commodities exchange to help the nation capture the prices of world commodities and promote the yuan s going global.
The suggestion comes from Hong Kong deputy to the nation's top legislature, the National People's Congress, Andrew Yao Cho-faiYao Cho-fai, who is also chairman, executive director and chief executive officer of Hong Kong Shanghai Alliance Holdings, a listed diversified conglomerate specializing in the distribution of steel and building products, as well as processing.
The Chinese mainland is the world's largest importer and user of commodities. With the import power, or what we call purchasing power, we could set up an exchange in Hong Kong using renminbi. He said businesses could choose between the US dollar and the renminbi.
Yao noted that some of the commodities being traded between China and Saudi Arabia are settled in Renminbi. If Hong Kong can capture some of the international trade transactions, we can make money and create jobs, and turn Hong Kong into a very important overseas renminbi center. ALSO READ: Hong Kong, Macao urged to make new progress.
He said the special administrative region can produce more actual usage of renminbi in global trade and investment through the issuance of renminbi-denominated debt, using the Chinese currency to buy stocks in the SAR and issuing renminbi-denominated interest rate and currency derivatives.
My first suggestion is to start thinking of setting up a university in the Northern Metropolis area that could attract professors, scientists, businessmen and technologists to open up companies there, using the university's research capability by taking advantage of the area's proximity to Shenzhen. Another suggestion is to ask the central government to invest in major technological laboratories in Hong Kong in areas like smart city, life sciences, big data and artificial intelligence. Yao envisaged that Hong Kong could be a technological hub for the mainland.
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The veteran businessman said that he expects the 11 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to work together to make themselves more competitive among various groups of cities.
We could learn from the management and operational efficiency of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macao and Zhuhai airports, and each airport will have its own specialty. He said one airport could be handling cargo, and another could be focusing on international or domestic passengers.
He said that Macao can handle some domestic mainland travel routes, where Hong Kong people can easily transit through the Macao airport to Sichuan, Tibet and Xinjiang.
It needs to increase the flow of talent in the region to boost the overall competitiveness of the city-cluster area. Many foreign talents working in Hong Kong are local residents, but they do not have a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport. ALSO READ: NPC deputies: HK to gain from Chinese path to modernization
My proposal is to relax visa issuance for foreign talent and their family members. Yao said that it can improve people flows and information flows.
He also recommended a series of immigration inspection points be carried out at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to speed up entry of people, as well as exchanges between the Hong Kong and Macao SARs.