…Not with a bang, but yacht tourism.
HKFP reports a Baptist U survey finding that low-income new Mainland immigrants in Hong Kong are earning less than they were in 2019…
It found that among those who were employed, 65 per cent earned a lower income last year compared with 2019. Their median income was 3 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, according to the report.
Meanwhile, among those who had lost their jobs in 2020, almost 60 per cent of them were still unemployed.
…Of those who found work after being unemployed in 2020, 15 per cent earned less than they did before.
Nothing on root causes. Are relatively new arrivals concentrated in those industries that never fully recovered from the impact of Covid? Are they particularly low-skilled? For context: Hong Kong’s unemployment rate is 3%.
From the SCMP – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is moving its local office to Singapore…
…as it reduces its exposure to the region amid a dearth of deals and persistent political risks.
“We have made the difficult decision to close our Hong Kong office and plan to wind down on-the-ground operations over the coming 18+ months,” the fund’s spokesman said in a statement on Thursday.
“As part of this change, certain Hong Kong-based employees will be offered the opportunity to transfer to Singapore. Unfortunately, others will leave the organisation and we’re working to support each of them.”
Ontario Teachers’ managed C$255.8 billion (US$178.5 billion) as of mid-2024, making it the world’s 20th largest by assets under management. It manages funds for 340,000 retired and working teachers and invests in more than 50 countries.
The decision to close the office follows its move to step back from China deals and the departure of top regional executives.
The fund said in January 2023 that it would pause future direct investments in private assets in China while continuing to invest through fund partners. China accounted for about 2 per cent of its portfolio, or C$5 billion. Geopolitical risk was a key factor for the decision to pull back.
Taiwan comes in 27th in the latest World Happiness Report – and number-one in Asia…
Taiwan finished ahead of Singapore, South Korea, and Japan on a list dominated by Scandinavian and European countries. Finland finished first for the eighth year in a row, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
The three East Asian countries ranked closest to Taiwan were Singapore at No. 34, Vietnam at No. 46, and Thailand at No. 49, per Liberty Times … Afghanistan closed off the list of 147 countries and territories.
Countries were rated based on factors including social support, gross domestic product per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, perceptions of corruption, positive and negative emotions.
The list was published by the Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford in cooperation with pollster Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
A Rhodium Group paper on how China boosts investment/exports and minimizes consumption/imports in ways that framers of the WTO never thought of. Essentially, a wide range of state support for domestic companies, such as cheap capital and inputs, subsidized infrastructure and discriminatory regulations. The executive summary will suffice for most people.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan leaving for Singapore, huh.
That reminds me of the good old days when it was fine to buy ports from a Hong Kong company.
https://www.oocl.com/eng/pressandmedia/pressreleases/2006/Pages/24nov06.aspx
Undoubtedly Ontario Teachers’ move out of Hong Kong & China is informed by its close relations with the Canadian government. Another win for China!
The great unelected will probably find it fortuitous that HK in languishing at lucky #88 in the World Happiness Index!
HKFP was in such a rush with their World Happiness Index story that the writer (head honcho Tom Grundy) didn’t get past 1 to 100 on the list website (ignoring page 2 and the bottom 101 to 170), wrongly putting Congo Iran and Ivory Coast as the unhappiest (98, 99 and 100). Unhappiest was actually Afghanistan, of course.
https://hongkongfp.com/2025/03/21/hong-kong-falls-in-world-happiness-report-index-for-5th-consecutive-year-to-lowest-ever-position/
The drop in ranking is linked to the increasing discontent with the erosion of civil liberties and a pervasive sense of hopelessness as, one after another, measures taken demonstrate that the community has no longer any say nor representation.
The announcement of the Dec Selection will have generated a further decline in satisfaction levels.
Remember when Trump first mooted the retaking of the Panama Canal and all the little pinks said, “outrageous, the ports are run by a private company, nothing to do with China”? And now Li Ka-Shing is being threatened with Article 23 if he sells LMAO.
In other news, was it New Balance responsible for the utterly shit air along the harbourfront today? They were running a diesel generator with a plume of smoke visible for half a mile and it stank the whole place out. And half their contractors were smoking (in the non-smoking area) as they put up tonnes of TaoBao staging and prepared tonnes of TaoBao giftpacks and plastic water bottles. All for a “3K run” so the stupid fucking New Balance KOLs can say they ran a “marathon”. Everything has become so fucking stupid, the harbourfront is taken over every other week by some bullshit; all about subcontractors making money with zero social or environmental responsibility and nobody can even say anything for fear of being NSLed. #NewBalance #SportsSoho #FuckOffEveryone