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Working for win-win co-operation
Last week, I attended the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Marrakech, Morocco, as a member of the Chinese delegation. This was my first time attending the annual meetings of major international financial organisations since 2019. Through participating in these important international conferences, we can better grasp the issues of concern among the international community and the trends in global economic development. It would also help reinforce Hong Kong's ties with the international community; and help strengthen our work in promoting Hong Kong's new strengths and new developments.
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| Last week, I attended the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Marrakech, Morocco, as a member of the Chinese delegation. |
As with the past, the Annual Meetings brought together finance ministers and heads of agencies responsible for development, governors of central banks, the management of the large corporations and financial institutions, as well as representatives from the academia from around the world.
The global economy is experiencing slower and imbalanced recovery than was expected; and many are anticipating that it will meet with multiple challenges ahead. This has become the focus of the Annual Meetings. The lack of growth momentum in many regions after the pandemic, the intensification of geopolitical conflicts, and the persistence of high inflation, etc., has continued to weigh on the global economic outlook. Many delegates at the Meetings are concerned that the high interest rate environment would remain higher for longer. A study also pointed out that reverse globalisation, supply chain reshoring, friend-shoring and even re-shoring as advocated by some countries would further slacken the weak global recovery.
Another issue attracting attention at the Meetings was climate change and green transformation. In recent years, low-income and developing countries have been increasingly impacted by climate change, which would also interfere with their development progress in public health and agriculture, as well as the sustainability of infrastructure. The global funding gap in green transformation remains significant, and it is crucial to encourage and leverage private market participation in this process more effectively. In addition, the Meetings also focused on global poverty and food crisis. A World Bank research indicates that the economic growth rate of developing countries in the past twenty years had declined from 6% to 5%; it is expected to further decrease to 4% over the next seven years. Research also shows that for every one percentage point decrease in global economic growth, an additional one hundred million people will fall into poverty, and another 50 million will enter extreme poverty. Given the current international scene, the World Bank is worried that imbalances in global development will intensify.
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| FS meeting with the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Mr Li Bo, during the Annual Meetings. |
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| FS meeting with the Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer of the WBG, Mr Yang Shaolin, during the Annual Meetings. |
During the Meetings, I called on senior representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as central bank governors from other countries and senior executives from international financial institutions. We exchanged views on global and regional economic conditions, international geopolitics, green finance, digital economy, and fintech development. In these bilateral meetings, I introduced the successful implementation and long-term adherence to "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong and the advantages they brought, as well as the new opportunities for Hong Kong in finance, innovation and technology, and green transformation, including, as proposed in my Budget this year, the goal of developing Hong Kong into an international centre for green tech and green finance. They recognised that as an international financial centre, Hong Kong is the regional leader in the development of green finance, and can make positive contributions in areas such as green financing, standard-setting, project certification, and talent training. I also invited them to attend the GreenTech Summit and Green Week to be held in Hong Kong early next year, where global elites in the green-related industries will gather. These events will promote constructive international dialogues, facilitate more matching between green funds and projects, and open up more possibilities for further cooperation in green development.
In recent years, Hong Kong has been actively promoting the development of financial technology and fostering financial innovation, so that members of the public can enjoy more diversified products and services. For instance, since the introduction of virtual banking licences four years ago, competition has prompted traditional banks to make greater strides in their digital transformation, with wider geographical coverage and more competitive fees, making financial services more inclusive. Some virtual banks have also seen good progress in opening up the Southeast Asian markets.
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| FS meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Mr Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour. |
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| FS meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Banking and Markets at HSBC Holdings plc, Mr Greg Guyett. |
This year, the Annual Meetings were under the theme of "Global Action, Global Impact". It has been stressed that in view of the multiple challenges faced by the global economy, countries need to explore possibilities for achieving win-win co-operation in a divided world. As the Managing Director of IMF and the President of the World Bank Group stated in their opening remarks in the Annual Meetings, countries need to strengthen co-operation to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, and work together to solve the problems faced by the world. This is the bridge that will lead to a better future.
As a key member of both the IMF and the World Bank, our country has been an active promoter of multilateral co-operation and joint efforts to address global economic, social and environmental challenges. A decade ago, President Xi Jinping initiated the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which adopts the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and embraces the concepts of open, green, clean and win-win co-operation, with the aim of boosting connectivity among countries along the Belt and Road in such areas as policy, infrastructure, trade, finance and people-to-people ties. The BRI has yielded fruitful results, bringing tangible benefits to the people of participating countries.
At this important juncture of the 10th anniversary of the BRI, our country will host the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, an international event at the highest level, in Beijing this Wednesday (October 18). I will join the Hong Kong delegation led by the Chief Executive to attend this key event in Beijing. Hong Kong will continue to leverage our unique strengths and functions under "One Country, Two Systems" to facilitate more communication and exchanges towards complementary and synergistic development, thus making concrete contributions to a better future for the world.
October 15, 2023
