Hong Kong should scrap ‘panda economy’ focus as it is too ‘low end’, former minister says

A former Hong Kong transport minister has poured cold water on the government’s hype over the “panda economy”, arguing it should focus on contributing to the country’s high-end development rather than “aiming at the low end”.

Anthony Cheung Bing-leung also said on Saturday that Hong Kong was struggling to appeal to investors because it had been “projecting an image of a national security city”.

The former minister, who left the government in 2017 and is now an adviser to the Asian and policy studies department of the Education University of Hong Kong, said the city must not lose sight of its traditional strengths while restructuring its economy and should make sure it still had an edge over mainland Chinese cities.

“In innovation technology, we should not just repeat what Shenzhen is doing. We may not have enough manufacturing bases, for example, but we have got finance, we have got the professions, we have got some services,” he said at a policy event.

“We must be good in contributing towards high-end development. We should not be aiming at the low end. That’s why I would say I would be quite critical of the so-called intention to develop a panda economy. I don’t think Hong Kong should go into that direction, although I would not discredit any contribution from that kind of initiative.”

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu doubled down on the idea of the panda economy in his policy address earlier in the week, calling on businesses to seize the opportunities brought by public interest in the first locally born panda twins and a pair of bears gifted by Beijing.