Why I wouldn’t leave Hong Kong for a finance career in Singapore

I’m French by delivery and I enjoy Hong Kong. I have lived below for more than two a long time even though performing in finance and no issue what men and women say I have no intention of at any time relocating to Singapore. 

Hong Kong is home for me. French bankers and traders like Hong Kong due to the fact taxes are lower and there is considerably fewer admin, but this is just not Hong Kong’s only attraction. 

If you work in banking, Hong Kong is a actual world hub. By comparison, Singapore by no means really took off. The complete current market cap of the Hong Kong Trade is around US$5 trillion. The whole market cap of Singapore Trade (SGX) is significantly less than $1 trillion. There is certainly no real comparison. There are few corporate clients of fascination in Singapore. Of course, Singapore has is private banking, but if you want to function in any markets occupation in Asia, you might be superior off in Hong Kong.  

Size isn’t really the only difficulty. Hong Kong has also historically been a put of higher freedoms than Singapore. I know there are explanations to disagree, but personally I feel this is nevertheless the case – you are a whole lot significantly less absolutely free in Singapore than you believe. There is certainly also the weather: in Singapore there are no seasons, and you happen to be caught with 30-40C temperatures and 99% humidity the complete calendar year round in Hong Kong there is at the very least a winter season and the humidity is in some cases much less than 50%.

Driving is a problem in Singapore: you have to buy a crazily expensive Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and taxis are a large headache. In Hong Kong, you can commonly get a taxi inside 5-10 minutes on any day, at any time and to any where.

Hong Kong is also significantly extra hospitable to outsiders. I am a long lasting resident in Hong Kong – I have appropriate of abode listed here no issue what. Accomplishing related position in Singapore is just not uncomplicated – while Singapore states it needs international bankers to operate there, ultimately it offers locals priority about employment. It truly is not like that in Hong Kong.

Of course, Hong Kong has its troubles, but for me, it really is dwelling. And I have no ideas to transform this in the long term.

Philippe Ersatz is a pseudonym. This is his view and does not always reflect the viewpoints of eFinancialCareers. 

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