香港金融创新落后于对手

Some months ago, when Joe Tsai of Alibaba addressed a seminar in Hong Kong on his firm’s financial strategy,

几个月前，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)在香港一场研讨会上就阿里巴巴的金融战略发言。

the first hand that shot up when he invited questions belonged to a Hong Kong insurance regulator.

当他请大家提问时，第一个举手的人来自香港的保险监管机构。

You say you are interested in internet insurance, the bureaucrat said.

你说你们对互联网保险感兴趣，这位官员说。

I want to make sure when you come to Hong Kong, you get a proper licence.

我想确保你们来香港时，获得适当的牌照。

On the YouTube recording of the event, the shocked laughter of the audience is clearly discernible as Mr Tsai graciously responds: If we do come, we will get a licence — and seek your advice.

在YouTube上的该活动录像中，蔡崇信彬彬有礼的回答引起观众们清楚可辨的震惊笑声：如果我们真来香港，我们将获得牌照——并寻求您的建议。

Then, just a few days ago, Mr Tsai’s partner, Jack Ma, criticised the listing rules for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as designed decades ago for property developers, financiers and traditional retailers and . . . not relevant to start-ups and new businesses.

然后，就在几天前，蔡崇信的合伙人马云(Jack Ma)批评了港交所(HKex)的上市规则，称其是几十年前的设计，适合地产商、银行、金融机构及传统零售商，但与初创企业以及新业务企业并不相关。

He may have been motivated, in part, by his own run-ins with the local rules: the territory refused to amend its regulations to permit Alibaba’s proposed structure, so it listed in New York.

他发出批评的部分原因或许是他本人与当地规则的冲突：香港拒绝为了放行阿里巴巴的股权结构而修改上市规则，所以阿里巴巴最终在纽约上市。

But his remarks still resonated with investors in the territory.

但他的话仍在当地投资者当中产生了共鸣。

Similarly, the co-founder of a fintech firm in Shanghai with Alibaba links recently gave an interview to a Shanghai paper in which he noted that,

同样，上海一家与阿里巴巴有关联的金融科技公司的联合创始人最近接受了上海一家报纸的采访。

at some point, his firm might consider establishing an office in Hong Kong.

他在采访中提到，他的公司或许会考虑在某个时候到香港设立办事处。

To his surprise, he soon received a message from a different bureaucrat in the Hong Kong government, reminding him of the licenses he would require.

令他吃惊的是，他很快收到另一名香港政府官员的信息，提醒他需要办理的牌照。

The message he took from this, he says, is: You are not welcome here.

他说，他从中得到的信息是：这里不欢迎你来。

Yet this same fintech firm is likely to receive a big equity cheque from Singapore Inc in its next funding round, which will value it at more than $1bn.

然而，这家金融科技公司很可能在下一轮融资中获得来自新加坡企业的大笔投资，其估值将超过10亿美元。

To the wider Hong Kong community, these frosty exchanges between corporates and regulators are signs that the Hong Kong government is unimaginative and unSupportive when it comes to encouraging innovation in finance —

对于整体香港社会来说，企业和监管机构之间这些冷淡的交流表明，在鼓励金融创新方面，香港政府缺乏想象力而且态度不大支持。

an area in which the city has had a competitive edge.

香港本来在金融领域有竞争优势。

Some warn that rival cities, such as Singapore and Shenzhen, are now doing far more.

有些人警告称，新加坡和深圳等对手城市目前的动作力度比香港大得多。

Hong Kong has nurtured start-ups in the past but has then seen the founders move elsewhere — often to Shenzhen, across the border in China, where human capital and physical space is more abundant and affordable.

香港过去培育出不少创业企业，但后来发现创业者迁往其他地方，经常是到对岸的深圳，那里的人力资本和物理空间更大，成本更可接受。

For example, DJI, the world’s largest drone company, was first conceived at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology but now calls Shenzhen home.

例如，世界上最大无人机公司大疆创新(DJI)最初是在香港科技大学(Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)构想出来的，但现在以深圳为家。

Indeed, Shenzhen has leapfrogged Hong Kong in attracting new economy companies, in part because of its plentiful supply of engineers, its supportive local government policies, and its distance from the sometimes toxic politics of Beijing.

事实上，深圳在吸引新经济公司方面已胜过了香港，部分原因在于深圳工程师数量众多、地方政府采取支持政策，以及远离北京有时紧张的政治。

It is home not only to internet companies such as Tencent, but also data mining firms and medical technology.

深圳不仅是腾讯(Tencent)等互联网企业的大本营，也是数据挖掘和医疗技术公司的基地。

Similarly, a list of fintech start-ups in Singapore compiled by CLSA using data from website Tech in Asia includes almost 180 firms.

同样，里昂证券(CLSA)利用Tech in Asia的数据汇编的一份新加坡金融科技创业企业名单包括了近180家公司。

By contrast, a comparable list for Hong Kong would have less than half that number.

相比之下，香港可比名单的长度将不到新加坡的一半。

Singapore’s local regulator appears to be highly supportive of fintech and has a clear view of when and under what conditions it will regulate the industry, says Jonathan Galligan, CLSA’s head of Singapore research.

新加坡当地监管机构似乎高度支持金融科技，并对在何时以及何种条件下对该行业实施监管有清晰的想法，里昂证券新加坡研究主管乔纳森.加里根(Jonathan Galligan)说。

That brings risks for existing performers.

这给现有企业带来风险。

In Singapore, Mr Galligan’s colleague, Christopher Wood, refers to the threat of disruption from government-prompted efforts to promote a new digital economy — be it in fintech, ecommerce, data technologies, transport, cleantech or the so-called sharing economy in general.

在新加坡，加里根的同事克里斯多弗.伍德(Christopher Wood)提到了政府努力推动新数字经济——无论是金融科技、电子商务、数据技术、交通运输、清洁技术还是一般意义上所谓的共享经济——带来的颠覆威胁。

Still, Singapore appears to realise that a government that defines its mission as protecting the interests of the establishment will merely accelerate the decline of that establishment.

然而，新加坡似乎意识到，一个把自己使命定为保护成熟企业利益的政府，只会加速成熟企业的衰落。

So far, its stance is paying off.

到目前为止，这一立场产生了回报。

Supportive government policies and the strongest ecosystem in Asia have already spawned the early stages of a new economy, Mr Galligan says.

支持性的政府政策和亚洲最强大的生态系统，已催生了新经济的早期阶段，加里根说。

To be sure, there are some initiatives in Hong Kong that are attempting to kick-start innovation.

诚然，香港也有一些尝试推动创新的举措。

In July, Sequoia Capital China partnered with a group of Hong Kong-based professors and the heads of its three leading universities to launch the Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform.

7月，红杉中国(Sequoia Capital China)与香港的一群教授和三所顶尖大学的校长合作推出了香港X科技创业平台(Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform)。

It will recruit professors to serve as mentors for students in robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, pharma, medical devices, electronics and fin tech.

该平台将招聘教授担任导师，在机器人、人工智能、大数据、制药、医疗设备、电子和金融科技方面为学员提供指导。

Sequoia China’s founder Neil Shen has donated HK$300m as a catalyst.

红杉中国的创始人沈南鹏(Neil Shen)已捐赠3亿港元作为催化资金。

But it will take far more than that to reinvent Hong Kong.

但要重建香港，仅做到这些还远远不够。