HK businesses suffering but will recover, says chamber chairman

However, Aron Harilela says he is confident Hong Kong will bounce back quickly after the protests because the city has very good fundamentals.

Discussing the negative effects that the violent protests have produced, Harilela, chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said the disruptions at the airport last week were terrible. In the second quarter, GDP growth was only 0.5 percent. “The situation could get worse as we don’t know how long the protests will last,” he told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

“The SMEs have the biggest fears because they rely heavily on cash flows,” he said. “If their cash flows dry up, their businesses could close and their livelihoods are at stake. If businesses are closed, that would result in unemployment. This is the worst situation Hong Kong could face as we are lucky that we have had virtually zero unemployment for a long time.”

On Monday, the Census and Statistics Department announced that the seasonal jobless rate from May to July was 2.9 percent, slightly up from 2.8 percent in the April-to-June period. The upward trend was attributed to diminishing trade and continuous sluggish domestic consumption.

“I am in the hotel industry. It is rather bad that hotel occupancy is less than half (lately), while room rates are 30 percent down. With over 20 countries and regions having issued travel advisories to warn their nationals about visiting Hong Kong, foreign people don’t want to travel to Hong Kong. They canceled their flights and canceled their holidays. Many industries like tourism, retail and catering are hurt badly,” he said ruefully.

Many foreign businessmen have also canceled their trips to Hong Kong. “On Wednesday (today), I will have a meeting with local investors who are thinking about moving their money out of Hong Kong,” he added.

Noting that US President Donald Trump has recently said a lot about Hong Kong, Harilela said: “We know that President Trump wants to destabilize the business sector in China, and some of the events in Hong Kong worked in favor of destabilization. Yet we cannot be blinded by the fact that frustrations on the streets are real and they must be addressed.”

Harilela is optimistic that Hong Kong’s economic future will turn around.

“I believe the business environment will improve six to 18 months after the protests are over. Hong Kong will bounce back quickly because it has very strong fundamentals; namely, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and free flow of information, people and capital. By that time, we will see some resumption. That will not happen this year but it will certainly be next year,” he said.

Harilela also notes that the protests have continued after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor declared the “death” of the bill on July 9. Right now, the most important thing is to maintain law and order, and then to start a dialogue. As a chamber, the HKGCC will be happy to be a platform in any way to be able to help with any future communication, he said.

Referring to the growing use of violence, Harilela stressed disruptions at the airport on Aug 12 and 13 must be condemned because tourists feared for their lives, police officers were assaulted, and the lives of innocent bystanders were put in danger.

Radical protesters paralyzed Hong Kong International Airport for two straight days, resulting in 979 flight cancellations, according to the Airport Authority. A violent clash took place on the evening of Aug 13, when radicals assaulted and roughed up a mainland tourist and a Global Times reporter.

“This must be condemned,” he stressed. “But this is a turnaround because a lot from the majority do not want to associate with the violent minority. Therefore, we must make a division between the violent minority and the peaceful majority.” 

It is not only about the bill, as there are a lot of other issues such as housing, quality of life and the wealth gap. “They all played a part in the frustrations of people in the streets and suddenly flared up,” he said.

He also expressed sympathy for the police. “We have a very small police force, with a little over 30,000 personnels. They have been on the street for 11 weeks but they are not riot police, and I am sure they must be very tired,” he said. It is entirely unacceptable in a decent society with the rule of law for police officers and their families to be subject to cyberbullying, he added.