Commentary

Mainland China and Hong Kong SAR have emerged as the economic and financial hubs of Asia, attracting scores of businesses engaged in the manufacture and distribution of goods from around the world. Despite both being economically active, people may view the two territories in stark contrast. Mainland China’s economy is strictly regulated, with a complex tax regime and relatively high trade barriers. Conversely, Hong Kong SAR is a free port that charges practically no customs duties and maintains a simplified tax system with minimal transactions costs. Dealing with two varying sets of regulations and regimes is part of reaching the markets to which Mainland China and Hong Kong SAR grant access.

The Chinese antitrust agencies issued implementing measures which will allow for an increased level of enforcement against cartels and other kind of anticompetitive conduct in China, but do they really mean business?

The Hong Kong Government published last summer the long awaited Competition Bill which is intended to introduce a general competition law in Hong Kong.

The rights of both the bank and borrower when it comes to non-financial covenant default will not remain a question anymore.

Providing banking and other financial services to the poor has always presented particular challenges. By definition, people with little or no money lack all but the most basic financial resources and economic influence. Their exclusion from the financial system means they have no credit history and no basis for participating in modern financial transactions. Poverty means they have little if any collateral to underpin lending. In large areas of the world, poor people also live in remote rural regions without access to the infrastructure of modern commerce and communications. This inability to benefit from financial services plays a large part in preventing the poor from making even modest improvements in their lives, and helps to trap them in poverty. More than 1 billion of the world’s population subsist on less than US$1a day.