A Paradigm Shift Towards a Green and Sustainable Finance Center

Hong Kong in Transition: A Paradigm Shift Towards a Green and Sustainable Finance Center 11 As an extroverted small economy, trade and tourism are the two pillars of Hong Kong. The overall trend of imports and exports corresponds with the trend of the GDP (Figure 2). From the middle of 2018 to 2020, imports and exports presented a slow declining trend. However, from 2020 to 2021, trade activities increased dramatically and imports and exports both peaked in 2021. In fact, in January 2021 alone, exports grew 44% year-on-year. After that, the two trends both gradually declined, reaching their lowest points in 2023. In contrast to the previous year, in January 2023, exports dropped by 37% year-on-year. Although the beginning of 2024 showed a positive sign, it is too early to anticipate how imports and exports will develop in the near future. Figure 2: Changes in Hong Kong’s Imports and Exports (Source: Based on data from the Census and Statics Department of Hong Kong) Due to the influence of the Anti-ELAB Movement and COVID-19, the overall number of visitors to Hong Kong started to decline in 2019 (Figure 3). Within a year, it dropped by more than 99% and maintained a minimum level from the 2 nd quarter of 2020 until the end of 2022. Visitors from Mainland China are predominantly the largest group. With life returning to normal, the border between Hong Kong and the Mainland reopened. In the 1 st quarter of 2023, visitors from Mainland soared by 38,993%. Despite this post-pandemic explosive growth, the number of visitor arrivals remained below 11 million by the end of 2023, a level still lower than pre- pandemic. To what extent Hong Kong will revive as a popular tourist destination remains in doubt. 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% -10% -20% -30% -40% -50% 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Year-on-year % change in imports Year-on-year % change in exports