Hong Kong competes on its reputation as a well but lightly regulated market. This philosophy is reflected in the Hong Kong stock exchange’s listing rules, which lay out a world-class standard of corporate governance but interpreted in a light-touch manner. Regulators try to avoid adding onerous requirements to compliance standards, […]
At the end of a calendar year, it’s natural to take stock of the past year and adjust one’s expectations for the future. At the close of 2018, that process was rather unpleasant for most of us and raised more questions than it answered. Why was 2018 so tough for […]
Technology has become truly pervasive. It is wide and it is deep. It transcends industries, professions, economies (developed and emerging) and straddles the globe, showing no respect for borders or passports. Technology has presented us with a somewhat eccentric narrative over the years. In the 1950s and 1960s, technology was […]
has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its economic liberalisation. While everyone praised Deng Xiaoping again for his vision and leadership, one of his famous sayings, “Let some people get rich first”, was conveniently not mentioned. Amid , that slogan just doesn’t feel appropriate now. If China were to hold […]
It is often said that the darkest hour is just before the dawn. For eternal optimists, there is always hope that morning brings something brighter, more promising. Global markets have had a lot thrown at them in recent years, from the to the European debt crisis, but they have always […]
Plato apparently insisted 2,000 years ago that no one in the ancient Greek economy should earn more than five times the average working person. George Orwell argued in 1941 that there was “no reason that 10 to one should not be the maximum normal variation”. Jump forward to the early […]
The old year is not ending on an exactly happy note for international relations and it seems that the only thing which might bind major powers (outside the US) closer together in 2019 is their common mistrust of US President Donald Trump. In the case of Sino-Japanese relations, this could […]
Managing an economy is not for the faint of heart. Policymakers must constantly monitor the ever-evolving global economic landscape, and anticipate lightning-fast changes that can breed volatility and uncertainty. As today’s political and economic turbulence attests, the impact of events in one place can be felt far and wide, but […]
China’s growth and inexorable rise to become one of the world’s top two global economic powers is now apparent to all. Some of the results of this rise are well known. They include the vast numbers of people lifted out of poverty, the spread of social security and health care, […]
’s economic revolution has been one of the defining stories of the 21st century. Yet, for foreign investors in Chinese , the returns have been far less impressive. This is a stark reminder that equity investors buy not economies. High economic growth may create an environment that is conducive to […]
