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00:00What's the sense out there amongst businesses the business the business community how hopeful are businesses about Hong Kong under the leadership of a John Lee. Yeah. Good morning first of all. Thanks for having me. While the business confidence as we know from many surveys international business chambers have launched. Among them also the European Chamber of Commerce. We know that confidence is at a low right now. For the obvious reasons. And while those reasons being travel restrictions prevailing in this part of the region. And that is not helping the economy. And therefore the new government is certainly starting off with very low business sentiment. And we do hope to see further positive messages from Xi Jinping himself and also then from John Lee following going down the road. Yeah I've been his party's it up quite. It's got a long laundry list. And of course your laundry list is not gonna match hairs because I'm sure that you'd be telling him about quarantine and how much damage it's doing. Give us a sense of his reaction to that. Well I think he's he's pretty aware of that particular challenge. It is not only the international community reaching out to him on this point. It's also the very influential local chambers who are doing the same and influential businessmen who are doing the same. So I think it is not a surprise for him that this is a big big priority for the business community and frankly for restarting Hong Kong. Hey Frederick this is Stephen Engle down Harborside. I've talked to a lot of these officials and Carrie Lam's cabinet and they all say oh we know Frederick Gala. You apparently have really bent their ear a lot you know calling for an open Hong Kong. They all know you and you're quite strongly voiced. Do you think what you've done has made a difference to to end this isolation that Hong Kong is in right now. Well you can say yes and no. Certainly we have not yet achieved an opening up of Hong Kong. We have always made our point that the opening of the borders either to the mainland or to the rest of the world is is our priority because we see businesses suffering locally and and international as well. And therefore we have been very vocal. And I'm just a figurehead of it. And I'm I'm giving the message. And the relay if you will. But I think we we do have hope that our work has been has been making an impact. And we do know that here and there. But when it comes to the ease of flight restrictions and so forth the treatment of children and very small steps we have made an impact. And I think we have also collaborated with the government very openly. And so we we we cannot say there has been a big big bang breakthrough here. But I think we've at least made our voice heard. And here and there we have achieved significant exceptions. So while we continue to push and we do this because we love Hong Kong we we want Hong Kong to strive and we want our businesses to be successful in Hong Kong in the Greater Bay Area in the mainland China. Frederick I know a lot of families who are up and leaving right now. It's not just anecdotal. I can count many many different families are leaving. Many of them are waiting till the end of the school year which has now happened. Then the exodus is going to pick up again where we've already seen 130000 net departures from Hong Kong mostly in February and March because of the Covid fifth wave. But do you expect more of a surge if we don't get a clear exit strategy from the Covid policies from John Lee in the opening days. Do you think there'll be a bigger exit from Hong Kong of the European families and business community. Well time Steve's time is certainly of the essence here. Many have been leaving already and certainly summer is approaching fast and people are going on their vacations. And therefore the question is how many of those will return. And certainly any message now any positive message now will tremendously help 4 4 4 people who are considering right now whether to opt for or against Hong Kong as is their place of living. Certainly personally I have to say Hong Kong hasn't lost its charm. It's just the inconvenience of reconnecting to families and businesses abroad. It has taken a big toll on the community. And yes we do see this flux of people which is frankly is very sad to see. And we hope to to stop the trend to to reverse the trend so that people can come back because we know people want to come back. It's not that people wish to leave. Frederick the big elephant in the room as well. We've been all talking about the pandemic response and the quarantine in the Seven Days Inn Hotel and the hindrance that that is to do business. But what about the national security law. We've had two years to digest that. How much of a deterrent is that for. For European businesses to set up shop here and to stay here. To be quite honest the national security law is not a big issue in the international business community. Right now everything is overshadowed by restrictions of travel. So it's certainly some issues when it comes to data privacy which are still things we we connect to the government to see. We seek more clarity on those issues. So I wouldn't say it's completely off off the table but we have to see how the national security law will work out in practice and how it does affect businesses. But for now it's relatively quiet around this point.

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EU Chamber on H.K.'s Future

The European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong Chairman Frederik Gollob says Hong Kong business confidence has hit a low with travel restrictions being the dominant and almost single issue for the business community. Gollob still believes the city will remain one of the most important financial hubs globally. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets: Asia." (Source: Bloomberg)

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