Seeing continuous innovation as natural is an important cultural gene of Hong Kong
Promoting change does not necessarily require any grand plans. Historical experience tells us that many grand plans are just nice to hear. Instead, each unit of the market relies solely on doing its own thing. The invisible hand of the market can often be gathered into a much larger force, thus Open up new development avenues.
Author: GUDORDI | 2024-01-26
Hong Kong’s financial market currently faces many challenges. (Shutterstock)
Slowly exhaling the smoke ring and looking back at the past moments,
I have also passed through the wind and rain and stood till now.
Who has not suffered in life, gained and lost a lot, can’t help but
see through the world, every kind of wind and rain cloaks me, hits me in the face,
I am at the peak, taste all the rain, the crowning of the breeze,
occasionally hit the strong wind, the pace is not messy
Deep down in my heart, I know the difference between gain and loss.
The challenge of overcoming obstacles is glorious and unsentimental.
Leisurely thinks of the endless cold looks and kisses on the face that day,
just like the wind and rain that changes reality every time. I experience
the glory of my life without seeking anything but hope that my fighting spirit will not be broken
. I am accustomed to the wind and rain, and the changes are regarded as natural.
——Luo Wen, “A Few Winds and Rains”
Xiaomei, the lyricist of Luo Wen’s “A Few Winds and Rains”, described to the media that the entire lyrics revolved around Luo Wen’s life-long music career. Looking back, Luo Wen has experienced many ups and downs in his life, and several songs have a lot to do with Hong Kong. The most classic one is “Under the Lion Rock”:
There is joy in life
, but there are also tears. When
we met at the foot of the Lion Rock,
we finally laughed more than we lamented.
Life is inevitably bumpy and
difficult. There is no need to worry.
We are in the same boat under the Lion Rock and we work together
to abandon differences and seek common ground.
People in the same boat vow to be with each other
without fear, even more fearlessly
We are in the same corner of the world
and work hand in hand to smooth out the rugged terrain.
We all worked hard to write the
immortal famous saying “Xiangjiang”
If we compare the lyrics of the two songs with the situation in Hong Kong today, we may have another emotion. Not long ago, Hong Kong was like a comet in the global capital market, developing at an unprecedented speed. However, in recent years, the situation seems to have reversed 180 degrees, and Hong Kong seems to have been abandoned by global investors, and has even been ridiculed as the “ruin of the global financial center.”
Hong Kong’s history is full of challenges
Although we can laugh it off with a cool smile, we are not just grass and trees. It is human nature to still feel worried and a little sad about the current situation in Hong Kong, right? As pointed out in the previous article of this column ” The Future of Hong Kong’s Legend “, Hong Kong currently faces many challenges, but it is worth noting that Hong Kong has always faced various challenges. Every time a challenge is overcome, Hong Kong moves to another level. Perhaps it is in order to cope with this series of difficulties and challenges that Hong Kong has been able to gradually transform from a small fishing village into an international financial center while struggling to survive. Therefore, continuous innovation to cope with changes in the objective environment may be one of Hong Kong’s most important cultural genes.
Of course, Hong Kong has had a lot of experience in overcoming difficulties in the past, but that does not mean that it can overcome or underestimate today’s challenges. After World War II, the United States has been the world’s largest capital allocation center. The global financial and monetary order after World War II was centered on the United States. Whether companies can raise funds depends heavily on the views of American funds. In the past 30 years, US funds have been willing to accept the listing of Chinese companies, and Hong Kong has benefited from this. Since Tsingtao Brewery was listed as an H-share in 1993, Hong Kong has raised more than US$1 trillion in equity capital for Chinese companies, and has therefore ranked first in the world in terms of IPO capital raising for many years. A considerable part of it (estimated to be at least half) came from the United States. .
Hong Kong needs to change its formation to adapt to the objective environment
But the current objective environment has changed and may never return. The current popular term in the investment banking community is “ABC” (Anything but China), which means that anything can be considered, except those related to China. Hong Kong needs to face and accept the reality that it will be much more difficult for Chinese companies to go public than before. If Hong Kong wants to change its formation, it must either attract companies from outside China to list in Hong Kong, or it must develop businesses other than listing. This leads to the next question: does the global financial market have room for changes in Hong Kong?
The answer is that it is not easy, but there is definitely room. Everything depends on Hong Kong’s vision, ability and determination. We will discuss it later. Promoting change does not necessarily require any grand plans. Historical experience tells us that many grand plans are just nice to hear. Instead, each unit of the market relies solely on doing its own thing. The invisible hand of the market can often be gathered into a much larger force, thus To open up new avenues of development, there is no need for anyone to act as a leader. Many times participants have to look back afterwards to discover that they had participated in creating miracles unconsciously, without even realizing it. This seems to be Hong Kong’s past experience, and it is also what Adam Smith said as early as 1759 (when The Wealth of Nations was published) The power mentioned in ” A Theory of Moral Sentiments” published 17 years ago) .
Perhaps, as long as Hong Kong can ensure that the power of the invisible hand can continue to operate, and that there are still a sufficient number of people and enterprises who “take change as a matter of course” and are willing to make “hard efforts” to try and innovate in various aspects, It may be enough to continue the famous “Xiangjiang famous saying”.
Contact the author: Gudordi@proton.me
