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By Anshuman Daga and Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Negotiators, fund managers and chief executives flock to Singapore for a series of high-profile meetings this month as the city-state strengthens its credentials as the world’s top monetary centre.
While COVID restrictions continue to hamper large in-person gatherings in rival financial hub Hong Kong, Singapore has mostly returned to pre-pandemic life with indoor mask regulations relaxed last month.
Business is booming: Hotel room rates are at their peak in a decade, convention halls have been booked for weeks, and restaurants are packed.
“We spent two and a half years locked up and away from our peers, so in-person speaking feels like a small step back to normalcy and a big step back to humanity,” said Rachel Lau, managing wife of Southwest Asia-based corporate investment firm RHL Ventures.
The first of those occasions starting Monday is SuperReturn Asia, an annual convention of the venture capital and personal justice industry being held for the first time in Hong Kong’s Singapore as usual.
Some 1000 executives from more than 4 days are expected to attend for 4 days, a record number for the occasion and compared to around 800 in 2019. Delegates pay up to 4,000 pounds ($4600) to attend.
“We have been making plans for the event for many months,” said Dorothy Kelso, global director of SuperReturn, adding that the call for the opportunity to meet physically in Asia is higher within the foreign community.
Other meetings in Singapore this month come with the Milken Institute’s Asia Summit hosted by American billionaire Michael Milken’s think tank, Forbes’ global CEO conference, and Token2049, a crypto event that will also take place in the city for the first time.
The conferences, which will offer networking opportunities with Indian and Chinese investors, as well as sovereign wealth funds, will bring together combined executives from investment giants such as Carlyle Group, PIMCO and Franklin Templeton.
Indian and Southeast Asian startups and representatives of cryptocurrency exchanges okx and FTX will attend.
The resumption of convention activity in Singapore puts it on an equal footing with New York, where corporate meetings have resumed. London has also largely returned to pre-pandemic levels of in-person gatherings in recent months, with smaller-scale occasions being more not unusual than giant multi-day conventions.
SINGAPORE VS. HONG KONG
Singapore is also expected to see a surge in tourism with the resumption of F1 night racing at the end of September after a two-year hiatus. Other top tourist attractions come with the Maroon Five and Guns N’ Roses concerts in November.
“Singapore is back in force,” said Curtis Chin, a former U. S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank and an Asian fellow at the Milken Institute.
Singapore has long been locked in a fierce festival with Hong Kong to be noted as Asia’s top monetary hub, with cities willing to attract global banks as well as wealth and asset managers.
But Hong Kong’s relentless COVID restrictions have damaged its economy and its position as a financial center. It is one of the few places in the world that still forces travelers who manage to quarantine.
Its restrictions have only added to an exodus of monetary and trade skills in recent years, as Beijing has begun to exert more on Hong Kong’s government and restrict freedoms, all of which have worked in Singapore’s favor.
“With Hong Kong tied to mainland China, either economically and politically, Singapore can further differentiate itself as a controller of its own destiny and as a hub for primary foreign events,” Chin said.
Wealthy families, especially from China, and other very wealthy people have created plenty of so-called “family offices,” taking advantage of Singapore’s generous tax incentives and strong political system.
The Singapore government has also just introduced new painting visa regulations to attract executives earning at least S$30,000 ($21,300) a month, hoping to attract global “rainmakers. “
($1 = S$1,4083)
(Reporting through Anshuman Daga and Yantoultra Ngui; Additional reporting through Lawrence White in London and Lananh Nguyen and Carolina Mandl da Silva in New York; Editing via Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs)