Hong Kong’s Intermediary Role on Funding the BRI: How Does it Fare Against Singapore?
HKUST IEMS Thought Leadership Brief No. 44
SHARE THIS
Given the scale and the cross-border nature of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is clear that major offshore centers should play a role in funding and Hong Kong is supposed to be well placed to have a central role in intermediating overseas capital for the related projects. The reality, though, is that offshore centers do not seem to be very relevant in financing the BRI projects. Within that context, Hong Kong and Singapore have the lion’s share among major offshore financial centers.
When analyzing the direct financing for the BRI countries after excluding money lent to Mainland Chinese banks or corporates without a clear destination or usage in the BRI, we find that the role of both Hong Kong and Singapore in intermediating BRI projects remains limited. When comparing the two, Hong Kong does not appear to outperform Singapore in any financial avenues of syndicated loans, offshore bond issuance, equity financing and asset management. We argue that Hong Kong has a long way to go to play a leading role in the financing of the BRI, an issue becoming more urgent in the aftermath of the COVID-19-19 pandemic.
Reference: Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Hanrui Li and Gary Ng. Hong Kong’s Intermediary Role on Funding the BRI: How Does it Fare Against Singapore? HKUST IEMS Working Paper No. 77. https://iems.ust.hk/wp77 .
Acknowledgement
This research is supported by the Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme from the Central Policy Unit of the HKSAR Government. More >>
About the authors
Alicia García-Herrero is the Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis. She also serves as a Senior Fellow at European thinktank BRUEGEL and a non-resident Research Fellow at Real Instituto Elcano think tank. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is also a Faculty Associate of HKUST IEMS. More >>
Hanrui Li is currently a Macroeconomic Data Analyst in MACROBOND.
Gary Ng joined Natixis as the Economist for Asia Pacific.
Get updates from HKUST IEMS
