Hong Kong is a city with more than 7 million people. It is one of the most densely populated cities in the world with a population of 6,300 per square kilometre. It is also one of the most important financial cities in Asia. The importance of Hong Kong is mostly because of its history as a recent British territory with exposure to China. Today, it is an autonomous city with its own currency and leaders. It is known as a Special Administration Region (SAR).
As Hong Kong has grown, the government of the mainland has tried to integrate with the city. The recent major project was the building of the bridge that connects Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland. The bridge stretches to more than 50 kilometres making it the longest bridge in the world.
Hong Kong has a GDP of more than $320 billion. The financial sector is the biggest contributor to the GDP. Other important sectors are the financial sector, tourism, logistics, and trading. In fact, Hong Kong Stocks Exchange is home to some of the largest companies in the world like Tencent. Hong Kong was also seen as a major contender to the listing of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco. The companied listed in Hang Seng have a combined market valuation of more than $3 trillion.
The biggest challenge facing Hong Kong is that of housing. This is because there is no land available to build new houses. Today, the city’s Chief Executive said that the city would reclaim land to build more than 400K houses. Most of these houses will be for the public. Hong Kong is not new in reclaiming the land. In fact, the current main airport is located at a land reclaimed from the sea.
In recent days, the Hong Kong dollar has lost against the USD after the sharp surge a few weeks ago. This is mostly because of the strength of the US dollar because of the decision by the Federal Reserve to continue with the tightening policy. The pair has reached at 7.8364, which is higher than the low of 7.7935 which the pair reached a few weeks ago. It is also close to the previous high of 7.8500. There is a probability that the pair will continue moving up and find a resistance at the previous high.
