FT: Chinese investment plans ‘still alive’英国金融时报：港股直通车没有搁浅。
Chinese investment plans ‘still alive’ByJamil Anderlini in Beijing and Lifen Zhang in London
Published: November 21 2007 19:28 | Last updated: November 21 2007 19:28
A plan to allow Chinese individuals to invest directly in Hong Kong stocks is still alive, in spite of delays caused by opposition from regulatory authorities, according to a senior Bank of China official.
China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced in August a “through train” pilot project to allow Chinese residents to invest in Hong Kong’s stock, via the BoCo’s operations in Tianjin, a city near Beijing.
But the plan was soon derailed by regulatory fears that a flood of money moving across the border into the former British colony could destabilise the financial systems on both sides.
Zhang Yanling, executive vice-president of BoC and chairwoman of BoC (UK), said, in an interview with the Financial Times, that the plan would go ahead, but refused to give a timetable. “We are fully prepared so that whenever the country needs it and the authorities approve it, we’ll start to implement it,” she said.
“With hindsight, perhaps our thinking on the through train had been a bit simplistic and the regulatory authorities have shown a better understanding of both the global capital markets and the financial market in Hong Kong. We want to run the through train smoothly . . . Better preparation would benefit both Hong Kong and the mainland. Too much hurry would do harm,” Ms Zhang said.
She dismissed comments made by Yu Yongding, a former member of the monetary policy committee of China’s central bank, who warned in an article on the FT’s Chinese website this week that the scheme was “extremely dangerous” because it would, in effect, end China’s strict control over its capital account.
“He shouldn’t worry so much,” Ms Zhang said. “The amount of money and the number of people involved can be easily controlled.” She also pointed out that many Chinese citizens had already opened bank accounts in Hong Kong and that large amounts of capital were already flowing in both directions across the border.
According to a regulatory source, Beijing now plans to place an initial quota of $30bn.
In the article, Mr Yu, who is also director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the China Social Science Academy, said “if the Chinese government decides to stop the through train and abolish the whole scheme altogether, it should not, on the whole, have any adverse impact to its economy.
“However, by announcing the scheme in a hurry and then withdrawing it soon afterwards, it has done harm to the government’s credibility. Nonetheless, it is a right decision to shelve the scheme for the time being.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
[[i] 本帖最后由 kill_bill 于 2007-11-23 06:32 编辑 [/i]] :victory:
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