Volume 2, issue #17 - 17-06-1997

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Hong Kong and Shanghai complement each other

June 2, 1997 Hong Kong and Shanghai are expected to shine together as international financial centres after China resumes the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1. The two sides will complement each other rather than make each other redundant, say experts in interviews. "I disagree with views that Shanghai would shake Hong Kong's status as a major international financial centre after July 1," says Dennis K W Wong, Vice President of the Shanghai Branch with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. "What's fundamental in their relationship is that they are mutually complementary and their differences are clear-cut."
An international financial centre, Hong Kong, where 85 of the world's top 100 banking institutions have a residence, has convertible currency. Hong Kong ranks the world's fifth in daily trading of foreign exchange and seventh in foreign exchange reserves and stock market.
Besides 16 Chinese banks, Shanghai, has branches of only 47 overseas banks, nine of which have just got approval for conditionally doing business in Renminbi currency in the Pudong New Area, says Wong.