Xi Jinping, China’s president, right, swears-in John Lee, Hong Kong’s president, at an event in Hong Kong, China, on Friday, July 1,2022 Hong Kong’s brand-new security-minded leader was sworn in by President Xi Jinping as the city marks 25 years of Chinese guideline, after stating the Asian monetary center had actually been born-again after a crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition.
Justin Chin|Bloomberg|Getty Images
Hong Kong’s brand-new Chief Executive John Lee was sworn in on Friday in an event participated in by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Analysts anticipate Lee to deal with longstanding issues in the unique administrative area, consisting of Hong Kong’s real estate crisis and recovering the global organization neighborhood. Maintaining security will likewise be crucial amongst Lee’s leading jobs, they state.
The previous British nest, which went back to China 25 years back, is a semi-autonomous area under Beijing’s guideline. However, the last couple of years have actually been politically unstable for the city, which saw pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019 turn violent.
In his inaugural speech, Lee explained the “one country, two systems” concept as the “institutional safeguard” of Hong Kong, and called it the “cornerstone” in keeping long-lasting success and stability.
“Over the past two and a half decades, Hong Kong has been recognized as the world’s freest economy, the world’s number three global financial center and the fifth most competitive economy around the globe,” Lee stated Friday.
Security
David Dodwell, the ceo of Strategic Access, a consultancy company, stated Hong Kong’s brand-new leader dealt with lots of difficulties.
“The first priority is security and stability, no question about it,” Dodwell informed CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Friday.
“The country as a whole and Hong Kong in particular, were really traumatized by the six months of street chaos in 2019. And very, very clearly, Beijing would not welcome that happening,” Dodwell stated, including that the federal government will likewise need to provide on real estate.
Business appeal
The brand-new president’s most significant difficulty lay in transforming Hong Kong’s appeal, stated Tara Joseph, senior director at organization threat consultancy, Strategy Risks, who just recently left the city after living there for 20 years.
“Hong Kong has been brought to heel…it is not open and connected with the world. And John Lee has a huge job to convince the international business community that Hong Kong is a great place to be,” Joseph,– previously the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong– informed CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.
The Asian monetary center’s connection to the mainland is likewise essential.
Hong Kong constantly has a chance to be a win-win if it stays linked and open up to the world, due to the fact that everyone desires organization to occur. China desires organization to occur.
Tara Joseph
Director of Strategy Risks
“Hong Kong always has an opportunity to be a win-win if it remains connected and open to the world, because everybody wants business to happen. China wants business to happen,” Joseph stated. “The U.S. and other Western countries [also] wish to have the ability to have capital and motion into China.”
However, the administration of outbound Chief Executive Carrie Lam might have “totally undervalued the unintentional repercussions [of] so-called combination” with the mainland, stated Bernard Chan, previous convener of Hong Kong’s executive council under Lam.
“There are a lot of unintended consequences. Local people felt that they’re losing out to their mainland counterparts,” he included.
He stated individuals felt that the Hong Kong federal government was refraining from doing “enough to protect their interests,” describing that China’s strong middle-class pertained to Hong Kong to gain access to wealth management items, treatment, education and so on.
“But they seem to be competing with locals, and I think we did not do enough to mitigate those kinds of unintended consequences,” Chan stated.
Housing crisis
The brand-new administration will likewise need to concentrate on real estate, stated Chan.
“A housing shortage has always been a big issue in Hong Kong. So just looking at the people he appointed, you can tell the main focus will be on fixing some of these very outstanding problems of Hong Kong,” he informed CNBC on Friday.
