I’m French by delivery and I enjoy Hong Kong. I’ve lived here for about two many years whilst functioning in finance and no make a difference what individuals say I have no intention of at any time relocating to Singapore.
Hong Kong is property for me. French bankers and traders like Hong Kong mainly because taxes are lower and there is substantially much less admin, but this just isn’t Hong Kong’s only attraction.
If you operate in banking, Hong Kong is a real global hub. By comparison, Singapore hardly ever actually took off. The complete marketplace cap of the Hong Kong Trade is above US$5 trillion. The whole market place cap of Singapore Trade (SGX) is significantly less than $1 trillion. You can find no real comparison. There are handful of corporate clientele of fascination in Singapore. Of course, Singapore has is non-public banking, but if you want to do the job in any marketplaces job in Asia, you happen to be much better off in Hong Kong.
Measurement is just not the only issue. Hong Kong has also historically been a place of increased freedoms than Singapore. I know there are causes to disagree, but personally I consider this is nonetheless the circumstance – you are a lot a lot less free in Singapore than you consider. There is also the climate: in Singapore there are no seasons, and you’re caught with 30-40C temperatures and 99% humidity the whole calendar year round in Hong Kong there is at the very least a winter season and the humidity is sometimes significantly less than 50%.
Driving is a problem in Singapore: you have to invest in a crazily expensive Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and taxis are a large headache. In Hong Kong, you can typically get a taxi inside of 5-10 minutes on any day, at any time and to any where.
Hong Kong is also far more hospitable to outsiders. I’m a long term resident in Hong Kong – I have correct of abode listed here no issue what. Reaching identical standing in Singapore is just not easy – even though Singapore says it needs foreign bankers to work there, ultimately it offers locals priority more than employment. It really is not like that in Hong Kong.
Yes, Hong Kong has its difficulties, but for me, it really is property. And I have no options to improve this in the foreseeable future.
Philippe Ersatz is a pseudonym. This is his feeling and does not automatically replicate the views of eFinancialCareers.
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