Hong Kong’s New Activism

As a bastion of capitalism, Hong Kong has few peers. For decades the government has adopted a laissez-faire stance toward the economy. The city-state’s workers and entrepreneurs, many of them refugees from the harsh early years of China’s Communist regime, are legendary for their work ethic and business acumen; they have remade the small territory’s landscape into one of the most vibrant cities on the planet and built a vast network of manufacturing and trading companies at home and on the mainland. The freewheeling business tradition has earned Hong Kong a perennial first place in the Cato Institute’s ranking of economic freedom.

因此，这是当今经济危机的衡量标准，其中一些考虑了资本主义本身的危机，即香港正在采取前所未有的措施，试图撑起亚洲最深刻的经济衰退的经济。在过去的九个月内，当局采用了两种刺激税务削减措施，支出措施和贷款担保价值超过1680亿港元（216亿美元）。政府还保证了所有银行存款，以促进对当地机构的信心。如果需要，官员明确表示他们已准备好考虑额外行动，以防止经济进一步恶化。

“这种危机可能比我们以前所经历的任何事情更严重，”金融司约翰曾荫权告诉亚博赞助欧冠在最近在中央政府办公室的采访中，在城市中间地区。“最糟的还没来。”

除了采取刺激措施,authorities are looking for ways to deepen economic links with China to benefit from the mainland’s continued growth. Hong Kong officials are also moving to tighten financial regulation, in an attempt to restore investor confidence in the markets.

全球经济衰退已蹂躏亚洲其他出口依赖经济体，日本，韩国和台湾报告1月份出货量滴滴。但香港可以说甚至更加努力。1月份出口截至一年同期跌幅为21.8％ - 50年来最大的下降 - 随着全球危机对通过城市运输的中国产品的需求削减。

动荡促使全球银行削减了该市大型金融中心和外国投资者的就业，以遣返资金来支付损失回家。根据瑞士信贷分析师的数据，在过去一年中，商业和住宅房地产价格截至2009年的分析师，50％跌幅。

The government forecasts that the $318 billion economy will contract by between 2 and 3 percent this year, compared with growth of 3.6 percent in 2008. Economists at Goldman Sachs (Asia) predict output will decline by at least 3 percent. The recession, which began in the second quarter of 2008, is the first since the economy shrank by 3 percent after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003 and could rival the 5.3 percent drop that took place in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.

“即使在严重的急性呼吸危机期间，我们也能出口，但在此场合出口市场摇摇欲坠，”曾荫权说。“这不仅为贸易部门造成了令人难以置信的损害，而且产生了物流，消费。这是深刻和毁灭性的。主要问题是，我们不知道它将持续多久或者它会有多么深刻。”

Last July, in a bid to halt the decline, Tsang and Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (no relation) introduced a HK$60 billion fiscal stimulus package, equivalent to 2.4 percent of GDP, to build half a dozen new roads and bridges and increase social welfare spending. In February, John Tsang announced HK$8.3 billion worth of tax cuts in his budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1, including a 50 percent reduction in income taxes for people earning less than HK$194,000 a year.

In addition to those measures, in October the government moved to restore confidence in the banking sector after a brief run by depositors at the Bank of East Asia, the No. 3 local lender by assets, by extending guarantees to all HK$6 trillion in deposits at Hong Kong banks. And in December officials announced the creation of a HK$100 billion fund to stimulate enterprise lending by guaranteeing up to 70 percent of all new loans. The move followed a report by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries that one quarter of the 70,000 Hong Kong manufacturers operating in China had shut down, and nearly all had laid off workers, because of plummeting sales.

政府希望这些措施将创造120,000项新工作岗位，相当于未来12个月的员工3.4％的劳动力350万。在一个城市，在3月份的一个城市将受到欢迎，而2007年3月则为3.2％。

"Hong Kong is moving in the right direction, but it could have done a little more in terms of boosting the consumption side of things, especially in offering bigger tax cuts," says Michael Buchanan, chief economist at Goldman Sachs (Asia) in Hong Kong.

除了财政措施之外，危机正在推动当局认识到最大的刺激措施是坐在边境上的最大刺激。据世界银行称，中国经济远非对全球萧条的影响，但即便如此，该国将在今年增长6.5％。That explains why Hong Kong officials are pressing Beijing to expand the city-state’s Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with China, a free-trade pact signed in 2003 that abolished duties on exports to China of 1,407 categories of goods and has allowed Hong Kong–based entities to compete more freely on the mainland in 40 service sectors, including banking, insurance, securities brokerage and legal advisory.

“我们相信我们可以从这个危机中恢复得更强，这是因为我们是中国的一部分，”约翰曾荫权说。“中国大陆是国际竞技场的希望作为增长引擎的希望。它的目标是在2009年增长8％。这将为香港产生很多商机。”

中国的领导人展示了接受的每一个迹象。At the end of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing last month, Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that his government would agree in coming months to expand the economic partnership arrangement to give Hong Kong companies greater access to the Chinese market for goods and services, and would speed up construction of bridges and roads connecting Hong Kong to Guangdong province and the Pearl River Delta manufacturing hub.

温家宝还致力于北京加强香港作为国际金融中心的角色，通过允许在其中接受与东南亚的企业建立贸易交易。目前，交易员仅限于香港每天在香港延长20,000元（2,920美元），这是香港和广东省之间贸易估计的2000亿美元。预计中国国务院将批准今年晚些时候大幅增加。

“这一举措将使香港成为最大的离岸元贸易中心，并将极大地加强香港，”香港风险投资和私募股权协会董事长理查德罗克说。

1月，中国宣布，它签署了与香港签署了2000亿元交换协议，以加强城市应对全球金融危机的能力。预计该设施将不得随时使用 - 在香港不缺资资源，在多年的预算盈余和1万亿港元产生的财政储备中。但互换确实强调了当局在北京和香港的承诺，更加接近经济和政治合作。

The success of China’s own stimulus package — Beijing has committed to spending 4 trillion yuan to spur growth — will be as important for Hong Kong as any bilateral measures, says Goldman Sachs’ Buchanan. The fiscal package should help the Chinese economy grow by 6 percent this year and 8 percent in 2010, he forecasts. "How well China manages its way out of this crisis will benefit Hong Kong more than any other economy," he notes.

除了财政和贸易措施外，香港还采取措施，让鲍威斯特对城市的金融市场的信心。

Confidence took a hit last fall from the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings. The U.S. investment bank had sold HK$15.7 billion worth of structured, credit-linked derivative products known as guaranteed minibonds to more than 43,000 Hong Kong investors, portraying the instruments as low-risk. But those products became worthless overnight when Lehman filed for bankruptcy.

在该崩溃之后，证券和期货委员会在全身审查中推出了全身审查，以确保经纪人不会误导客户，并且销售代理商对投资风险很清楚。1月份，香港监管机构谴责当地经纪人鸿凯投资服务，随后宣布，它将自愿回购价值8.5亿港元的投资者雷曼炸融。

“我们正在提醒行业，他们必须严格遵守行为准则，即产品的尽职调查，以及客户评估，确保他们销售的产品适合客户，”首席执行官马丁惠麦利证监会，告诉II.

监管官员在危机期间进入了一些批评。特别是，批评者在2月份在香港证券交易所举行了一部分攀升，并在一个关键的透明度措施。该交易所提议为公司董事拨入公司股票，只要盈利公告前四个月，从目前的一个月开始。该提案是对涉嫌内幕交易的广泛反对的回应。但在200多家本地公司投诉后，交易所宣布将禁止延长至最多两个月。

投资者also complained in March after the exchange canceled an end-of-day share auction in the wake of a 24 percent drop in HSBC Holdings’ stock price. Such auctions were introduced in May 2008 and provide a ten-minute window for investors to trade after the market’s normal 4:00 p.m. close.

“香港监管机构不应该因为批评而挥舞着政策，”风险投资协会的Roque说。

SFC的Wheatley捍卫了香港交易所和清算的行动，交换运营商。“随着任何改变都有争议，”他说，“但香港交易所已经提出妥协。”

Wheatley表示，香港监管机构已经尽力维持自由和开放的市场。他指出决定不履行卖空，这是在全球股市崩溃中，过去一年中遏制或禁止的大多数主要市场的做法。悉尼街道全球顾问的基于悉尼的投资组合经理Todd Kennedy表示，他的公司赞赏监管机构的克制。“我认为这是香港金融市场成熟度的迹象，”他说。

官员认为，监管行动正在为香港奠定基础，以扩大其金融服务业，因为区域经济恢复。财务司司长曾荫权表示，“危机”表示，“危机”为我们提供了加强金融服务部门的机会，加强我们的产品组合并扩大我们的达成趋势更加新兴经济体。“