SFC chief urges global investors to look beyond traditional markets to Asia
Securities and Futures Commission Chairman Kelvin Wong told the 5th Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit that Asia's complexity offers excess returns for active investors. He said Hong Kong must be a marketplace for global capital to partner in Asian transformation, not merely a gateway.
Financial leaders must look beyond traditional markets and embrace Asia's complex transformation, the chairman of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said on 4 November. Speaking at the 5th Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit, Kelvin Wong Tin-yau argued that divergence in Asia is a primary source of alpha for active investors who are considering where tomorrow's returns will originate.
Wong stressed that Hong Kong must never be merely a gateway for capital passing through to Asia. "A gateway is a place you walk through, but a marketplace is a place you stay in," he said, adding that Hong Kong should be a venue where global capital comes to understand, price, and partner in Asian transformation.
The SFC chairman noted that the past decade rewarded investments in a small concentration of largely American markets. He pointed out that past success creates a familiar validation loop of portfolios, assumptions, and expectations, maintaining that complexity in Asia contains the potential for active investors to obtain excess returns.
Speaking against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions, accelerated technological iteration, and varying paces of development among economies, Wong stated that the greatest opportunities in the future are not expected to come from places where capital is already comfortable, but rather from places with the greatest variables.