“Hong Kong greatest city in world to do business”

Mark O'Neill July 28, 2024 22:09

One of the city’s most famous foreign businessmen said that Hong Kong was the greatest city in the world in which to do business.

Jim Thompson is founder and chief executive of Crown Worldwide Group, one of the world’s biggest private relocation companies. He was addressing a seminar at the Our Hongkong Foundation. In 1965, he started his company with US$1,000 in Yokohama. Japan and moved his global headquarters to Hong Kong in 1970. It has operations in 45 countries.

“During the last 83 years, Hong Kong has been through many bounces. I am very positive. Of all the times to be in Hong Kong, now is the best time. It is an up cycle. We have stability and are free of crime, able to do things you cannot do in London or New York,” he said.

“This is the Asian century. Asia is where the wealth and population are. Hong Kong is the place for this century and beyond. People must look at the big picture. I am a globalist, a free trader. This will continue.”

To remain attractive to foreign business, Hong Kong must remain “nationality-blind” and stay international, he said. “I am sure there will be no war in Taiwan. China is very smart.”

In his talk, Thompson described the city’s history and the crises it had endured and survived. “It has been a bumpy road and many times we felt it could end.”

During Japanese occupation in World War Two, the population fell from 1.6 million to 600,000. After the war, the economy began to recover. After the Communist government took power, hundreds of thousands fled here. One group was industrialists bringing their wealth and expertise; the other was the poor who became workers in the factories and businesses the first group established.

“Would the PRC take over? Thankfully, Hong Kong proceeded on its own,” Thompson said.

In 1963, the city suffered a serious drought that led to water rationing and supply of only four hours a day. “No-one knew when it would end.”

The next crisis came during China’s Cultural Revolution. “In 1967, I came here on honeymoon and saw Red Guards on Queen’s Road. They were waving Mao’s Red Book and calling for (Governor) David Trench to be hanged. There were riots and deaths.” The crisis passed.

“The 1970s were the most significant decade, with the death of Mao and the visit of President Richard Nixon to Beijing. It was an amazing thing. China had been closed. Then Deng Xiaoping said that it could deal with the world and do business. If Chinese are free to do business, they will take over the world. This is what has happened.”

The next crisis came in the 1980s after Deng told British Prime Margaret Thatcher that China would resume control over Hong Kong in 1997. Over ten years, the population fell by 600,000 to one million and unemployment rate fell to 1.1 per cent.

“The handover happened and life did not change. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, 30 per cent of those who had left came back, because they felt more valuable here.” Then came the Asian financial crisis and SARS, when Hong Kong people were unwelcome in the world and the tourism industry died for one-two years.

“I am impressed by how China has handled Hong Kong over the last 27 years. Our company has grown well here. The Hong Kong miracle is not due to Chinese or British leadership but the adaptability of Hong Kong people. We have lost a lot of people. They will be replaced by mainlanders. The environment makes the people.

In 1960, Hong Kong had one university and now has 10. “The people are more educated and the government is devoting a huge budget to the education system.”

He criticised the foreign media for painting an excessively negative picture of the city. “People send me messages and ask how I can stay here. This drives me crazy. It is the same wonderful old Hong Kong,” he said. He wrote a letter presenting his views to the Wall Street Journal. “But the editor did not print it because it did not fit his agenda.”

He said that Hong Kong people must accept the reality that China was their place. “Mainlanders are our countrymen. We must make the reality positive. The mainlanders of today are the Hong Kongers of tomorrow. The opportunities in the Greater Bay Area are incredible.

“My son lives in China and says that the technological development is startling – 45,000 kilometres of high-speed railway and none in the United States and United Kingdom.”

In addition to running his company, Thompson has been very active in serving on government committees and in charity. He is an executive committee of the Society for the Promotion of Hospice Care. “My work with charities has been very fulfilling, when you see the results. The giver gets more than the recipient.”

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.