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Letters | Not too late for the Hong Kong economy to diversify
Readers discuss the financial and economic landscape, the latest target of Hong Kong keyboard warriors, and nostalgia
Reading Time:3 minutes
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Sixty years ago, during a banking crisis in 1965, HSBC took control of Hang Seng Bank. Now, in 2025, the former is taking the latter fully private. Talk about coming full circle.
Amid turmoil in the 1960s, a new banking ordinance had been introduced and it would lead to a more stable financial environment in Hong Kong. However, as it says in the Diamond Sutra: “All composed things are like a dream, a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.”
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In the 2020s, could it be time to review the city’s banking legislation with an eye on the current economic uncertainty?
You may ask what actually caused Hang Seng’s woes. I believe the bottom line there is the conservatism of investors who are big believers in the property market and won’t really put their money in something else. As a consequence, we’re stuck in our ways.
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Actually, Hong Kong had a chance to diversify in the Tung Chee-hwa era, with the Cyberport project. But that was more of a property project ultimately and the hopes of it becoming an Asian Silicon Valley never materialised.
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