Donald Tsang in Ho Rih Hwa 'Leadership in Asia Public Lecture Series'
I attended the Ho Rih Hwa ‘Leadership in Asia Public Lecture Series’ today where the distinguished speaker was Mr Donald Tsang, Chief Executive Hongkong SAR, PRC.
Inspiring and insightful. The topic was on ‘The Financial Crisis- Lessons Learnt and the Way Ahead for Asia’.
In the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to a few other distinguished gentlemen (Professor Michael Lim and Mr Andrew Sheng) with different takes on the financial crisis.
To sum up the takeaways from these lectures and seminars, the common thread on the causes of the crisis has been:
Inspiring and insightful. The topic was on ‘The Financial Crisis- Lessons Learnt and the Way Ahead for Asia’.
In the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to a few other distinguished gentlemen (Professor Michael Lim and Mr Andrew Sheng) with different takes on the financial crisis.
To sum up the takeaways from these lectures and seminars, the common thread on the causes of the crisis has been:
- Lack of regulation and oversight in the financial markets;
- Loose monetary policies creating excess liquidity;
- Ease of capital flows across global-networked economies;
- Dangerous use of leverage in financial derivatives.
Mr Tsang also spoke on East-Asian integration and a tighter response to capital markets regulation via the combined effort of central bankers round the Asia-Pac region to stave off the ill-effects of capital flow volatility. He too commented on the proposed Tobin tax being a logical global fiscal response to stem the slush of ‘hot money’ moving round the globe. However, it is not always easy to exercise this in view of contending interests from various parties. A work in progress, and it may not come to pass.
In closing, he remains confident that Singapore and Hongkong will play ever important roles in the integration of Asian capital markets in tandem with the Indian Rupee and Chinese RMB being fully convertible in future. The rule-based systems of both open economies will compete and complement one another. I hope so too.
In closing, he remains confident that Singapore and Hongkong will play ever important roles in the integration of Asian capital markets in tandem with the Indian Rupee and Chinese RMB being fully convertible in future. The rule-based systems of both open economies will compete and complement one another. I hope so too.
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