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The View | Three cheers for Sevens and Hong Kong – different but back to business
- Just as the Sevens rugby tournament, with its changed format, draws crowds, so Hong Kong is drawing investors again with a more mainland-led economy
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Hong Kong is back. You can see it in the crowds expected to be heading towards So Kon Po as the legendary Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament kicks off in Hong Kong Stadium. Hong Kong established the Sevens 48 years ago, seeding a true world series. I believe the English rugby anthem, Sweet Caroline, was first sung as a rugby anthem here.
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This year, World Rugby has taken over the tournament that Hong Kong popularised, changing the well-loved format. Smaller teams find it almost impossible to qualify, so although Hong Kong seeded Sevens as an Olympic sport, its team will appear in a consolation league.
Men’s and women’s matches are interlaced, forcing traditionalists to watch both instead of heading for the bar in between favourite games. It is business as usual at the Hong Kong Sevens – but it is a different tournament.
This strangely parallels the new normal where Hong Kong is back to business – but it is a different economy, dominated by the fortunes of the Chinese economy.
Brave talk about Hong Kong coming back will only come to fruition when China recovers from this uncharacteristically sluggish period. We may not have long to wait. Markets tend to move before any signs of green shoots in the real economy.
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The Shanghai and Hong Kong markets suffered under contact with bad news in the first three weeks of this year, but quickly reversed, with the former scoring 2.2 per cent by quarter end. Hong Kong lost 12 per cent in the big January fall but by the end of the quarter, had risen by 11 per cent from that low.
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