Hong Kong’s role as financial hub “has not swayed by the slightest degree” since implementation of the national security law for the city, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Monday at a forum that celebrates one-year anniversary of the legislation, the chinanews.com reported.
“The national security law is an important turning point for Hong Kong to turn from chaos to management, and its effect as being a mainstay for Hong Kong is without doubt,” Carrie Lam said.
To support her conclusion, Carrie Lam cited a number of statistics to show Hong Kong’s financial achievements in the past year. For example, Hong Kong’s newly listed stocks had raised funds of more than HK$500 billion ($64.35 billion), up more than 50 percent compared with the previous year.
Besides, the Hong Kong dollar market recorded net inflows last year. From July to October 2020, more than HK$300 billion flowed into the Hong Kong dollar system. The city’s banking deposits also increased by more than 5 percent currently compared with last year.
Those figures are proof that investors have not refrained from investing in Hong Kong because of the new legislation, but are more confident and interested in Hong Kong’s financial prospects after they see that the national security law has made the city return to stability, Carrie Lam said.
One year after the national security law was implemented for a city which was once troubled by social riots, the chief executive of Hong Kong has stressed on several occasions recently that Hong Kong’s role as the world’s financial hub has been strengthened in the past year.
She notedrecently that Hong Kong can play important roles in mainland’s financial development, such as facilitating the yuan’s internationalization and helping finance mainland companies, indicating a trend of increased connectivity between Hong Kong and mainland’s financial markets.
The clarification also came at a time when some overseas media platforms continue to heap slander on the legislation, using terms such as “destroying” to criticize the reform.
According to Carrie Lam, those accusations are “ungrounded” based on last year’s facts and statistics. “They only showed the speakers’ hypocrisy, prejudice and double standards,” she said at the forum.
Passers-by look at a banner celebrating the centennial of the Communist Party of China and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland above the entrance to the office for safeguarding national security of the central government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Wednesday. Photo: cnsphoto
