- Oct 2, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 7
The last couple of weeks have been incredibly exciting for Singapore: SuperReturn Asia, DealStreetAsia's PE/VC event, the Milken Asia Summit, Forbes CEO conference and the F1.
Visitors getting into Singapore today are neither required to serve any quarantine nor wear masks in public. Everything feels like it's been reverted back to 2019 - big MICE events, face-to-face meetings, public gatherings, etc. It almost feels surreal.
All of this exceitement... but I am not in Singapore. Envious onlookers residing in Hong Kong can only drool at the party from afar and read about these large-scale social events in the news and LinkedIn feeds.
Last week, Hong Kong finally announced that it was lifting mandatory quarantine for arrivals into the city.
From the 14-day quarantine implemented last year which was reduced to 7 days this year, and more recently to 3-day quarantine + 4-day monitoring, inbound travelers now just need to do a "0+3"---no quarantine but just a 3-day monitoring period. That is still better than serving quarantine in China.
It was a long awaited step, but some have said this was too little too late.
Against the backdrop of an increasing number of people and firms moving from HK to Singapore, and the recent high-level summits taking place over the last couple of weeks, Hong Kong is finally saying "Enough is enough! and we have to get back in the game or run the risk of really losing out in the long term." With all the anticipation of high profile events, it seems like Singapore has played its cards well and somehow gotten ahead of the game.
According to SCMP,
"Singapore may have the edge at the moment, but Hong Kong has more longer-term advantages to attract capital and talent" [quoted from the HKEx]
Nothwithstanding COVID restrictions, high accommodation costs, stilfing space and population exodus, Hong Kong still has some advantages as compared to Singapore especially when it comes to leveraging the resources of its neighbour -- China. Besides, conference and event go-ers are generally indifferent to Hong Kong and SIngapore as long as they are invited to the party with reasonable certainty of a huge turnout.
Understandably, those sitting on either side are motivated to swing the odds back into their favour.
I am not trying to pre-empt whether or not the tables will eventually turn for both cities but recall back in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic, Hong Kong was at one point of time leading the charge on potentially emerging from the abyss.
And then in a twist of events, it was tightened again in late 2020 due to the resurgence of the 'second wave'.
When the dust finally settled in early-mid 2021, I vividly recalled Hong Kong was gradually moving back to larger group gatherings and reinstating back-to-the-office work. Over that same period, Singapore on the other hand was back-tracking. I had been preparing to depart Singapore in May, looking forward to getting some reprieve that at least face-to-face meetings were possible in Hong Kong. Singapore did not make significant headway in lifting the restrictions until later that same year.
And then in 2022 after the spring break, Hong Kong relapsed into partial shutdown again for over a month.
If there was anything I learned over the last 2 years from the pandemic, it is that nothing is ever really permanent. The stable state of things we are familiar with can be easily contested at some point of time or another. We took public gatherings for granted until COVID happened. Singaporeans took for granted chicken rice, a somewhat common staple would always be there until Malaysia halted the exports of Chicken for awhile in May 2022.
This is similar in the case of energy stability in Europe which had always been considered a given until they were forced to take sides against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Even the economies halfway around the globe aren't insulated from this with food supply being disrupted due to Ukraine being one of the world's largest exporter of grains.
The point is: Everything you know today can change in an instant.
Just like the conference go-ers in Singapore, the companies and workers that have relocated to the city can easily find themselves moving back to Hong Kong very quickly once normality has been restored.
The race is long and change is the only constant and the race is long. Sometimes you are in front and sometimes you are behind.
Your competitive edge today can disappear quickly tomorrow simply just because the tide has moved. All things - no matter how good or bad they may seem to be today - can change very quickly.
