Tempo de leitura: 5 minutos<\/small><\/p> \n
The situation in Hong Kong is dire. Those responsible pretend its problems are not happening because they cannot face up to the reality of what they and their masters in Beijing have done. But ordinary Hongkongers and individual companies are not looking away. A massive brain drain is underway<\/a> \u2014 more than 89,000 people, or 1.2% of Hong Kong’s population, have left over the last 12 months, and the U.K. government is expecting at least another 200,000 \u00e9migr\u00e9s under its BNO visa scheme<\/a> over the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surveys show that a significant proportion of companies<\/a> in Hong Kong are \u201cwaiting and seeing\u201d with contingency plans at the ready. Many have already moved their data centers<\/a> away from the prying eyes of the \u201cnational security\u201d police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hong Kong\u2019s strength is its financial services, and while Singapore is justifiably mooted as the alternative hub in Asia, it should not be the only one. While its internationalized corporate culture, common law system, and official use of English all hold it in good stead, it is one of the most censored countries in the world<\/a> and, compared with Taiwan, socially backward. It also remains notoriously expensive<\/a> and, for those with cosmopolitan tastes, rather dull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiwan is ideally placed to be an alternative: it\u2019s vibrant, safe, free, open, and a country people want to move to<\/a>, not escape from. So why isn\u2019t Taiwan seizing this chance to replace Hong Kong? Taiwan\u2019s government, unfortunately, has been too passive in responding to its own perceived limitations \u2014 yet a solution now lies within reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For all its whimsical nostalgia, the reality is that Hong Kong has never been anything more than a special economic zone (SEZ) of China since 1997. Despite Chinese SEZs grabbing headlines in recent years, Taiwan was on the SEZ scene long before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, Taiwan became a pioneer in East Asian economic zones by first opening an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Kaohsiung<\/a> in 1966, over a decade before Shenzhen became China\u2019s first SEZ.<\/a> So why not tap into this legacy and make a new physical (or even virtual) \u201cTaiwan SEZ\u201d now? This TSEZ could have its own laws, financial regulatory system, and governance model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiwan lags behind Singapore in some key ways: its way of doing business and legal system are not as familiar to international companies, while talent and professional services are in shorter supply. Not to mention the thorny issue of English proficiency. The challenges can be overcome, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to get a \u201cTSEZ\u201d up and running would be to set up a common law system for the zone while keeping Taiwan\u2019s broader civil law system \u2014 an exact parallel of Hong Kong\u2019s legal framework within China. That would enable Hong Kong\u2019s laws and financial regulatory framework to be copied lock, stock, and barrel \u2014 the best way of ensuring continuity for companies that want to relocate here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The beauty of the common law system is that legal expertise for it is available internationally, and so Taiwan could tap into that existing pool of talent too. The lack of local talent is perhaps the easiest problem to fix \u2014 Taiwan regularly tops out as one of the best places in the world for people to live in. By building a competitive financial hub, it could soon be a top destination for work too. It\u2019s also cheaper than both Hong Kong and Singapore, and there is no stultifying political censorship here. Talent wants out of Hong Kong and Taiwan should give it a home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for English, what better way of demonstrating commitment to President Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s Bilingual 2030 Country Project<\/a> than by making it a practical reality with English as the official language of the TSEZ? A TSEZ aligns perfectly with the government\u2019s strategic aims to become a bilingual country; with a bit of political will, it can happen, and quickly too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As with any big audacious goal like this, there are risks. One of the biggest is to avoid cannibalizing Taiwan\u2019s existing financial services sector. That could be done by preventing the country’s residents from using the TSEZ\u2019s services or products. If the idea of relocating to the new TSEZ is perceived by companies in Hong Kong as being too risky, the TSEZ could start by offering comprehensive outsourcing services<\/a> so they could relocate bit by bit. Once one company relocates, others will follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, a successful TSEZ might annoy China. Yet if enough Chinese park their money here, and enough global firms invest here, it would become the finance industry\u2019s equivalent of TSMC \u2014 a geostrategic asset that helps ensure Taiwan\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even the process of just setting up a TSEZ would massively boost the financial services sector and help diversify Taiwan\u2019s economy. Furthermore, it would buttress the country\u2019s position within the global system and would get decision-makers chatting about Taiwan in boardrooms and government offices around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee Faulkner is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the UK\u2019s actuarial body, and has more than 30 years\u2019 experience in the world of financial services in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He lived in Hong Kong for 10 years and witnessed its rapid decline. Lee is a Taiwan Gold Card holder and is keen to do what he can to help Taiwan develop in the sector he knows best.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 5 minutos<\/small> The situation in Hong Kong is dire. Those responsible pretend its problems are not happening because they cannot face up to the reality of what they and their masters in Beijing have done. But ordinary Hongkongers and individual companies are not looking away. A massive brain drain is underway \u2014 more than 89,000 people, or 1.2% of Hong Kong’s population, have left over the last 12 months, and the U.K. government is expecting at least another 200,000 \u00e9migr\u00e9s under its BNO visa scheme over the next Continue lendo<\/span>\u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-adm_hb2018","post-4396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artigos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4398,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions\/4398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abrazpe.org.br\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}