The flight of wealth and talent from Hong Kong

The Australian Government in its Federal Budget announced on 6 October 2020 included significant measures around attracting global talent which will be so vital to driving economic growth.   

With talent expected to play a pivotal role in helping to drive growth and create employment opportunities, there is an opportunity for developed economies such as Australia’s to make a bold statement around the role immigration and talent attraction and retention play in driving growth. 

Australia’s Business Investment Immigration Program

The Australian Government has a long and successful history of attracting wealthy investors and business entrepreneurs to leverage their successful business history to build their future in Australia.  

Australia ranks highly as the preferred location for foreign business investors and business owners. The United States has long been the favoured destination for foreign wealthy investors via its investor immigration program. Australia has historically ranked #2 as the preferred location for wealthy foreign investors. Canada and the United Kingdom also rank highly.    

The Australian Government have reinforced its commitment to attracting foreign investors and entrepreneurs and will introduce changes to improve the quality of investments and applicants. 

The Australian Government Business Innovation and Investment Program (“BIIP”) will focus on higher value investors, business owners and entrepreneurs and improve the economic outcomes of the BIIP. 

The number of places in this program will be increased to 13,500 per annum. This is a further testament to the future role the Investor Immigration program will play to help drive economic recovery in Australia.

Support for Hong Kong investors and entrepreneurs  

In the years ahead the new “oil” is global talent, particularly in skills which are critical to economic recovery.

In September 2020, the Australian Government established a taskforce combining government and private sector experts as part of efforts to drive investment and job creation in the post-COVID-19 economy. The new "strike team" is charged with luring international businesses to Australia and will target exceptional talent in advanced manufacturing, financial services, FinTech and health.

The group was being established as talented workers and business leaders overseas looked to Australia and would target talent in Hong Kong.

The government taskforce would leverage existing Australian networks abroad, including the Australian diaspora, to help identify opportunities. The Australian Government hopes to also leverage from Australia’s relative success economically, as well as from Australia’s successes in dealing with COVID both in terms of a health perspective and socially.

The plan follows moves by the Australian Government to develop incentives to attract export-orientated Hong Kong-based businesses to relocate to Australia.

In addition to these incentives, the Australian Government is investing significant resources in attracting talent from Hong Kong who have the skills to help build economic growth in the period of recovery post COVID. This includes attracting senior executives and business entrepreneurs who have a track record of success in leading and building businesses in Hong Kong.

Significantly, Australia has positioned Sydney to become the financial services capital of the Asia Pacific region. This aspiration plays perfectly to the skills available in Hong Kong.

It is anticipated that the skills and attributes of investors and entrepreneurs will be very targeted. Recent announcements by the Australian Government indicate that preference will be given to occupations and skills which will help deliver economic recovery and supplement health related skills in short supply locally.  

A key policy incentive to attract talent from Hong Kong to Australia is the Global Talent Independent Program (“GTI”). This program is a streamlined visa pathway for highly skilled professionals to work and live permanently in Australia.  The Australian Government recently announced that places in the GTI program will be tripled.

Australia is after the brightest and best global talent to work in seven future-focused sectors. The GTI program is designed to help grow Australia’s talent bank in the innovation and technology economies.

Australia’s unique advantages for Hong Kong

For Hong Kong investors, business leaders and entrepreneurs, there are some uniquely attractive options which are “hard-wired” to Australia’s advantage. These include the following:

  • A strong and stable regulatory framework, including legal, investment and taxation

  • A world-class education sector

  • A long history of successful migration from Hong Kong, including a large well-established Hong Kong diaspora in Australia

  • Australia is an integral part of the Asia Pacific region with strong trade links and in an aligned time zone to Hong Kong

  • Strong commercial and residential property market

  • World class health system including one of the world’s best responses to COVID-19, including low infection and mortality rates

  • A stable democratic political environment

 

Mark Wright