Shenzhen TV Interview - China's great opportunities attract, International business return to Hong Kong
ENGLISH TRANSCRIBED SCRIPT:
Voiceover: In China, continuously promoting a high level of opening up and actively releasing policy signals welcoming foreign investment, the global business community closely pays attention to the structural transformation and development opportunities of the Chinese market. The Chair of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Josephine Orgill, expressed in an exclusive interview with Shenzhen Satellite TV reporter that the improvement of China-Australia relations attracts more Australian enterprises to develop in China.
Reporter: The Hong Kong stock market has performed well this year and what's your observation?
J.O: Improved sentiment in Chinese stocks from a combination of factors leading from stimulus and the Deepseek effect. Deepseek illustrated the range of progress Chinese companies are making with material investment and research and development and in a particularly influential sector in today’s markets. Valuations of Chinese companies vs off-shore competitors are relatively attractive, and this is attracting increased interest from offshore investors who are relatively under-invested as a cohort. Pro-growth environment in Hong Kong and policy settings and the Hong Kong exchange's strategic development have been designed to support this. I think that's led to a healthy pipeline and we'll see what the rest of the year brings.
Voiceover: The partner and director mainly responsible for consulting on hedge funds, Josephine noted that since the beginning of this year, the activity level of the Hong Kong capital market has significantly increased, with the Hang Seng Index cumulatively rising over 20% within the year. This shows that the valuation of domestic technology companies has increased, making the Hong Kong financial market a hot spot for global capital again.
With the continuous improvement of China-Australia relations, the Australian business community is also increasingly valuing business opportunities in China, and Hong Kong has thus become even more lively.
J.O: New businesses come - so just to give you a few examples, we've had young people come through the top talent pass scheme. We've had a couple of global heads return to Macquarie Bank, which is a very large Australian bank that is headquartered for the region here. The expansion of Wealth Connect we see is of great significant potential and we have a number of very large Australian companies who've been operating in Hong Kong for a number of years, including Macquarie Bank and ANZ Bank, and more recently, Real Asset Management Group, the RAM Group have been here expanding their products set to take advantage of the potential in the Greater Bay Area.
Voiceover: In the past year, the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has actively advocated for the theme of Hong Kong as a destination, promoting the return of talent and capital. Some countries' media have a biased narrative towards China. Orgill stated that seeing is believing, which can help break the information gap and seize business opportunities.
J.O: People are seeing the opportunity but I think for us to fully manifest it, the promotion has to continue along different avenues from those that have been used previously. We've been very pleased to hear announcements from the central authorities around the third plenum and then more recently in two sessions about the importance of the international elements and nature of Hong Kong and the fundamental importance of two systems in underlining that, but that's not well understood outside Hong Kong. We also see a lot of progressive policy coming from the government, particularly around funding for innovation and technology.
Voiceover: Hong Kong's greatest feature remains its external connections, rooted in opportunities from the mainland and expanding outward, which is where Hong Kong's greatest charm lies.
J.O: I think free trade, open borders and constructive engagement and dialogue is beneficial to both consumers and producers, as we've seen with the recent improvement in the trading relationship between Australia and China, with all tariffs and trade barriers being removed. think respect for global framework works, such as the World Trade Organisation and bilateral trade partnerships are important for global prosperity, but also for meeting the societal and economic needs of all economies.
Reporter: Shenzhen and Hong Kong has their own strengths within the Great Bay Area and how could they work more closely together to boost their finance and innovation?
J.O: And taking things from an idea to commercialisation, which Shenzhen's been very good at. I think extending the visa-free access or the mainland multi-entry permit cards to non- permanent residents in Hong Kong is really important if you want to attract people to be based here in order to manifest that GBA opportunity.