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The Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, today (October 5, Eastern Standard Time) started his visit to the United States ahead of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Lima, Peru, which he will attend as a member of the Chinese delegation on October 9 (Lima time).
On his first stop in New York, Mr Tsang began by meeting with the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, Mr Wu Hongbo. Mr Wu introduced the latest actions taken by the United Nations to promote sustainable development of economies worldwide.
Mr Tsang also had lunch with leaders of the financial sector and discussed global economic outlook.
A courtesy call was made on the Chinese Consul-General to New York, Ms Zhang Qiyue, in the afternoon. This was followed by a visit to New York Genome Centre, a leading institute in genomic and biomedical research. The Centre also provides incubation programmes for biotech start-ups.
Speaking at a seminar on Hong Kong organised by the Asia Society, Mr Tsang introduced the latest economic and financial developments in Hong Kong, in particular Hong Kong's advantages as the premier asset management centre in the Asian region and the world's pre-eminent offshore Renminbi centre.
He said, "In spite of the recent volatilities and major fluctuations in the financial markets, our robust market infrastructure and regulatory regime ensured that the Hong Kong market was trading and operating in an orderly and smooth fashion. The currency and interest rate markets remain stable. The banking system has no liquidity issue.
"As an international financial centre, we have been attracting, and will continue to do so, a world of business and investment.
"Last year, Hong Kong's stock market ranked second, globally, in terms of funds raised in initial public offerings, just behind the United States. At the end of August this year, more than 1 800 companies were listed, including Mainland and overseas companies."
Mr Tsang said he is confident that Hong Kong will continue to thrive. He forecast the growth of the Hong Kong economy to be somewhere in the 2 to 3 per cent range for the full year of 2015. "Over the medium term, I believe we shall be entering the era of 'new normal', where more advanced economies like Hong Kong will maintain a fairly low level of growth. I expect Hong Kong's real GDP will be growing by about 3.5 per cent a year from 2016 to 2019," he added.
Tomorrow (October 6, Eastern Standard Time), Mr Tsang will continue his visit to New York by meeting prominent financial figures before heading for Washington, DC, in the afternoon.
Ends/Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Issued at HKT 08:17
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