香港金融創(chuàng)新落后于對手

Some months ago, when Joe Tsai of Alibaba addressed a seminar in Hong Kong on his firm’s financial strategy, the first hand that shot up when he invited questions belonged to a Hong Kong insurance regulator. “You say you are interested in internet insurance,” the bureaucrat said. “I want to make sure when you come to Hong Kong, you get a proper licence.” 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.”

幾個月前，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)在香港一場研討會上就阿里巴巴的金融戰(zhàn)略發(fā)言。當(dāng)他請大家提問時，第一個舉手的人來自香港的保險監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)。“你說你們對互聯(lián)網(wǎng)保險感興趣，”這位官員說。“我想確保你們來香港時，獲得適當(dāng)?shù)呐普铡?rdquo;在YouTube上的該活動錄像中，蔡崇信彬彬有禮的回答引起觀眾們清楚可辨的震驚笑聲：“如果我們真來香港，我們將獲得牌照——并尋求您的建議。”

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”. 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. But his remarks still resonated with investors in the territory.

然后，就在幾天前，蔡崇信的合伙人馬云(Jack Ma)批評了港交所(HKex)的上市規(guī)則，稱其是幾十年前的設(shè)計(jì)，適合地產(chǎn)商、銀行、金融機(jī)構(gòu)及傳統(tǒng)零售商，但與初創(chuàng)企業(yè)以及新業(yè)務(wù)企業(yè)并不相關(guān)。他發(fā)出批評的部分原因或許是他本人與當(dāng)?shù)匾?guī)則的沖突：香港拒絕為了放行阿里巴巴的股權(quán)結(jié)構(gòu)而修改上市規(guī)則，所以阿里巴巴最終在紐約上市。但他的話仍在當(dāng)?shù)赝顿Y者當(dāng)中產(chǎn)生了共鳴。

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, at some point, his firm might consider establishing an office in Hong Kong. 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. The message he took from this, he says, is: “You are not welcome here.”

同樣，上海一家與阿里巴巴有關(guān)聯(lián)的金融科技公司的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人最近接受了上海一家報紙的采訪。他在采訪中提到，他的公司或許會考慮在某個時候到香港設(shè)立辦事處。令他吃驚的是，他很快收到另一名香港政府官員的信息，提醒他需要辦理的牌照。他說，他從中得到的信息是：“這里不歡迎你來。”

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，這家金融科技公司很可能在下一輪融資中獲得來自新加坡企業(yè)的大筆投資，其估值將超過10億美元。

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 — an area in which the city has had a competitive edge. Some warn that rival cities, such as Singapore and Shenzhen, are now doing far more.

對于整體香港社會來說，企業(yè)和監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)之間這些冷淡的交流表明，在鼓勵金融創(chuàng)新方面，香港政府缺乏想象力而且態(tài)度不大支持。香港本來在金融領(lǐng)域有競爭優(yōu)勢。有些人警告稱，新加坡和深圳等對手城市目前的動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.

香港過去培育出不少創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)，但后來發(fā)現(xiàn)創(chuàng)業(yè)者遷往其他地方，經(jīng)常是到對岸的深圳，那里的人力資本和物理空間更大，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. 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. It is home not only to internet companies such as Tencent, but also data mining firms and medical technology.

例如，世界上最大無人機(jī)公司大疆創(chuàng)新(DJI)最初是在香港科技大學(xué)(Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)構(gòu)想出來的，但現(xiàn)在以深圳為家。事實(shí)上，深圳在吸引新經(jīng)濟(jì)公司方面已勝過了香港，部分原因在于深圳工程師數(shù)量眾多、地方政府采取支持政策，以及遠(yuǎn)離北京有時緊張的政治。深圳不僅是騰訊(Tencent)等互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)的大本營，也是數(shù)據(jù)挖掘和醫(yī)療技術(shù)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. By contrast, a comparable list for Hong Kong would have less than half that number. 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.

同樣，里昂證券(CLSA)利用Tech in Asia的數(shù)據(jù)匯編的一份新加坡金融科技創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)名單包括了近180家公司。相比之下，香港可比名單的長度將不到新加坡的一半。新加坡當(dāng)?shù)乇O(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)似乎“高度支持金融科技，并對在何時以及何種條件下對該行業(yè)實(shí)施監(jiān)管有清晰的想法，”里昂證券新加坡研究主管喬納森•加里根(Jonathan Galligan)說。

That brings risks for existing performers. 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”. 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. So far, its stance is paying off. “Supportive government policies and the strongest ecosystem in Asia have already spawned the early stages of a new economy,” Mr Galligan says.

這給現(xiàn)有企業(yè)帶來風(fēng)險。在新加坡，加里根的同事克里斯多弗•伍德(Christopher Wood)提到了“政府努力推動新數(shù)字經(jīng)濟(jì)——無論是金融科技、電子商務(wù)、數(shù)據(jù)技術(shù)、交通運(yùn)輸、清潔技術(shù)還是一般意義上所謂的共享經(jīng)濟(jì)——帶來的顛覆威脅”。然而，新加坡似乎意識到，一個把自己使命定為保護(hù)成熟企業(yè)利益的政府，只會加速成熟企業(yè)的衰落。到目前為止，這一立場產(chǎn)生了回報。“支持性的政府政策和亞洲最強(qiáng)大的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，已催生了新經(jīng)濟(jì)的早期階段，”加里根說。

To be sure, there are some initiatives in Hong Kong that are attempting to kick-start innovation. 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. It will recruit professors to serve as mentors for students in robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, pharma, medical devices, electronics and fin tech. Sequoia China’s founder Neil Shen has donated HK$300m as a catalyst. But it will take far more than that to reinvent Hong Kong.

誠然，香港也有一些嘗試推動創(chuàng)新的舉措。7月，紅杉中國(Sequoia Capital China)與香港的一群教授和三所頂尖大學(xué)的校長合作推出了香港X科技創(chuàng)業(yè)平臺(Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform)。該平臺將招聘教授擔(dān)任導(dǎo)師，在機(jī)器人、人工智能、大數(shù)據(jù)、制藥、醫(yī)療設(shè)備、電子和金融科技方面為學(xué)員提供指導(dǎo)。紅杉中國的創(chuàng)始人沈南鵬(Neil Shen)已捐贈3億港元作為催化資金。但要重建香港，僅做到這些還遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠。