Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said that since 1983 Hong Kong began to establish currency exchange system pegged with the US currency. Although such currency peg has gone through ups and downs in the past 27 years, Hong Kong has maintained good economic relationship with the United States. He said Hong Kong has no intention to change the present currency exchange system to follow China's monetary policy.'
Tsang said this in response to a question if it would be possible for Hong and China to implement the same monetary system. He said that Hong Kong's per capita income was more than $30,000. He added that in term of economic development, Hong Kong and the United States have maintained very close relationship. As such Hong Kong has no intention to change its monetary exchange rate pegging system with the United States.
Tsang Chun-wah said that although China's Renmibi (RMB) was an important currency, it was not an easily convertible currency. This was an area Hong Kong was currently trying to assist China.
Some places in Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries also allow the use of RMB as trading currency. It is hoped that Hong Kong can become such a platform and base for RMB to rise and continue to grow strong.
Establishing Two Financial Centers
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah opined that since China has a population of 1.3 billion people, having Hong Kong and Shanghai as its two financial centers were not many. China can have two financial centers.
On primary and secondary industries, China has already grown very strong. China is now working on third tier of industries. This should be the economic growth engine to push China's economy further ahead.
Learning From Malaysia on Islamic Finance Development
Tsang said that Malaysia's experience in Islamic financial sector and in Islamic investment as well as in public education for it were very successful. As such, one of the main reasons he visited Malaysia was to learn from Malaysia in these areas. He said that at this moment, for Hong Kong to develop the Islamic financial sector, the most important thing is to enhance public education and promotion about it and to allow more market participants to understand that the Islamic financial sector was not only for Muslims to participate only. It was a financial field that all interested investors could join and participate.
When Tsang Chun-wah accepted a joint interview with the Malaysian media, he said that Hong Kong's Muslim population was not much. But Hong Kong has a robust financial structure. Hong Kong could become a regional platform, in particularly a platform for China to participate in Islamic finance and service.
In addition, Tsang also said that the purpose of his visit to Malaysia was also to see if the bi-lateral cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia could further be advanced in certain direction or to develop cooperation model. He said while he hoped his visit could promote bi-lateral economic relationship between Hong and China, he also wanted to learn from Malaysia's success economic stories.
He said that when he met and talked to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib earlier, he gained many constructive views. He believed this would help to make the bilateral economic growth and cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia to move forward.
Country's NKRA Measure
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Tsang Chun-wah said that in order for Hong Kong to maintain healthy economic development, Hong Kong has identified six priority areas in order to diversify Hong Kong's economic base and create employment opportunities. He said Hong Kong's priority measures and Malaysian Government's measures to identify National Key Result Areas (NKRA) were quite similar in essence.
He said that the six priority areas identified by the Hong Kong Government included education services, pharmaceutical services, laboratory certification, innovation and technology, environmental industries as well as cultural and creative industries.
When Tsang Chun-wah presented his keynote address at a public forum themed as "New Economic Order in Post Global Financial Crisis Era, he said: "The top priority area concept carried out by Hong Kong holds many common grounds as Malaysia's National Key Result Area policy. Through such comparison, I can see many opportunities for cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia. Such cooperation opportunities can help us to achieve our common goal. We should try to create these opportunities. "
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