Speakers

HKU Forum on

Chinese Economy

April 1, 2023

Keynote Speakers

The Honourable John KC LEE
Keynote Speaker

The Honourable John KC LEE
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Mr John Lee was born in 1957. He joined the Hong Kong Police Force in 1977 as a Probationary Inspector of Police and was promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Police in 2010. He served in a variety of posts in the Force, including Assistant Commissioner (Crime), Director of Crime and Security and Deputy Commissioner (Management). He holds a Master's degree of Public Policy and Administration from Charles Sturt University in Australia.

Mr Lee was appointed Under Secretary for Security in 2012 and Secretary for Security in 2017. During his service in the Security Bureau, he was responsible for the formulation of security policies covering law and order, immigration and customs control, fire and emergency rescue services, correctional services, government flying services and other areas. He also oversaw and coordinated the work of six disciplined services departments and two auxiliary forces under the Bureau.

Mr Lee was appointed Chief Secretary for Administration in 2021. Apart from assisting the Chief Executive in policy administration, Mr Lee was also responsible for supervising the work of nine policy bureaux, harmonising the work which straddled across different bureaux and departments, as well as promoting a good relationship between the Executive Authorities and the Legislature.

Mr Lee won the Chief Executive Election of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on 8 May 2022, and was appointed as the sixth-term Chief Executive by the Central People's Government on 20 May 2022. Mr Lee assumed office on 1 July 2022.

The Honourable John KC LEE

The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region

Mr. Jiantang MA
Keynote Speaker

Dr. Jian-tang MA
Deputy Director of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

Dr. Ma Jiantang, PhD in economics and senior research fellow, is Deputy Director of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Dr. Ma Jiantang graduated from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Dr. Ma previously acted as Director-General of Macroeconomic Control Department of Development Research Center of the State Council, Director General of the Comprehensive Department of State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) and Deputy Secretary-General of SETC, Deputy Secretary-General of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, Member of the Standing Committee of CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee and Vice Governor of Qinghai Provincial Government, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China (NBSC) and Commissioner of NBSC, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Chinese Academy of Governance (CAG) and Executive Vice President of CAG, Secretary of Party Leadership Group of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) of People’s Republic of China and alternate member and member of the 18th CPC Central Committee. He authored “Cyclical Fluctuation and Structural Change, Structure and Behavior”： Studies on China’s Industrial Organization, Research on China’s Industrial Structure, Research on the Reform of State-owned Enterprises at the Turn of the Century, etc. In 1994, he won China’s top economics award-Sun Yefang Economics Prize, and was granted the title of Expert Making Outstanding Contributions by the State Council. Furthermore, in 2012, he received the China Economics Theory Innovation Award for his Theories on China’s Economic Restructuring.

Dr. Jian-tang MA

Deputy Director of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

Sequence of speakers is in alphabetical order of surname.

Panellists

Panellist

Mr. Erik BERGLÖF
Chief Economist, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Mr. Erik BERGLÖF

Chief Economist, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Professor Zhiwu Chen
Panellist

Professor Zhiwu CHEN
Director, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social

TBC

Professor Zhiwu CHEN

Director, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social

Panellist

TBC
TBC

TBC

TBC

TBC

Sequence of speakers is in alphabetical order of surname.

Moderators

Professor Shusong BA
Moderator

Professor Shusong BA
Managing Director, Chief China Economist, HKEX
Chief Economist, The China Banking Association

Ba Shusong is a Managing Director and the Chief China Economist of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX). Based in Hong Kong, Professor Ba leads a team focused on research relating to Mainland China's economic and financial policy developments. His team is involved in a number of China-related strategic projects that seek to actively promote interaction and cooperation between HKEX and the Mainland.

In addition to his position at HKEX, Professor Ba is the Chief Economist of the China Banking Association (CBA) and holds of a number of academic and industry positions in Hong Kong and Mainland China. He is a member of the Mainland Opportunities Committee of the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) of Hong Kong, an honorary advisor of The Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB), an executive director of the HSBC Financial Research Institute at Peking University, and a vice president of the China Society of Macroeconomics. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board for Research and Development of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).

Professor Ba has contributed to the publication of several Chinese-English bilingual books – including Global Commodities Market: From Spot to Futures; Mutual Market Connectivity and Hong Kong Market Innovations for New-Economy Financing; Bond Connect Scheme ― New Strategy for Internationalisation of China’s Bond Market; and New Progress in RMB Internationalisation ― Innovations in HKEX’s Offshore Financial Products – which have received industry recognition.

Professor Shusong BA

Managing Director, Chief China Economist, HKEX

Professor Hongbin CAI
Moderator

Professor Hongbin CAI
Dean and Chair of Economics, HKU Business School

Professor Hongbin Cai is the Dean of the HKU Business School and Chair of Economics. He received his B.A. in Mathematics from Wuhan University in 1988, his M.A. in Economics from Peking University in 1991, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in 1997.

From 1997 to 2005, he taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. From December 2010 to January 2017, he served as Dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. He joined the HKU Business School in June 2017 and serves as the Dean since July 2017. He is a National Chang Jiang Scholar (awarded by Ministry of Education of China) and a National Outstanding Young Researcher (awarded by National Science Foundation of China). Professor Cai has published many academic papers in top international journals in economics and finance, in a wide range of areas including game theory, Chinese economy, industrial organization and corporate finance.

Professor Cai was elected as a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He was a member of the National People’s Congress, and a member of the Central Committee of China Democratic League and Vice Chairman of its Committee of Economic Affairs. He was the founding president of The Chinese Finance Association (TCFA, overseas). He serves as an Independent Director on the boards of CCB International (Holdings) Limited and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation.

Professor Hongbin CAI

Dean and Chair of Economics, HKU Business School

Professor Zhenhua MAO
Moderator

Professor Zhenhua MAO
Economics, Professor of Practice, HKU Business School

Dr. Mao Zhenhua was born in Hubei Province in 1964 and was admitted to study Economics at Wuhan University in 1979. From 1983 to 1992, he served consecutively in the Statistics Bureau of Hubei Provence, the Policy Research Office of the Hubei Provence, the Research Center of the Hainan Provence Government, and then the Research Bureau of the State Council. In 1992, he founded China’s first and largest credit ratings agency — China Chengxin Group, a subsidiaries of which -- -- is currently a Joint Venture with Moody's Investors Service. He is a leading figure of "Class of 92" (Business elites who left the government or official research institutes in 1992 to start their own business), and is recognized as "Top 100 Outstanding Entrepreneurs during 40 years of reform and opening up".

Currently, he holds position as the Chairman of China Chengxin Group, Chief Economist of China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co., Ltd, Director of the Institute of Economic Research of Renmin University of China, Dean at Dong Fureng Economic and Social Development Research Institute of Wuhan University, Executive Director of China Economic Theory and Innovation Awards, Executive Director of China Federation Of Industrial Economics(CFIE), Director of China Entrepreneur Forum(CEF), Member of the State Council Deepening Medical Reform Leading Group Advisory Committee, Member of National Big Data Development Expert Advisory Committee, Member of National “Internet +” Action Expert Advisory Committee. He takes doctoral students at Renmin University and Wuhan University, and also serves as parttime professor at Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(CASS). Starting from 2022, he was appointed as Professor of Practice in Economics at HKU Business School.

He focuses in areas of economics including macroeconomics analysis, bond markets analysis, and credit rating theories and has published several books including, "Dual Bottom Line Theory", "Corporate Expansion and Financing", "Ten Years of Macroeconomics, Ten Years of Policies, Ten Years of Theory", "Capitalization of Corporate Institutions", and "Credit Ratings - Advanced Theories and Practices" etc. Additionally, in recent years, he presided over the compilation of China’s first textbook on "Health Economics", and led the establishment and development of the subject in China.

Professor Zhenhua MAO

Economics, Professor of Practice, HKU Business School

Professor Heiwai TANG
Moderator

Professor Heiwai TANG
Director, Asia Global Institute

Heiwai Tang is Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics, Director of the Asia Global Institute, as well as Associate Director of the Institute of China Economy and the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). Prior to joining HKU, he was tenured Associate Professor of International Economics at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University. He is also affiliated with the the Center of Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESIfo, Germany), the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Germany) and the Globalization and Economic Policy Center (U.K.) as a research fellow. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the United Nations, and the Asian Development Bank; and held visiting positions at the IMF, Stanford, MIT, Harvard. He is currently Managing Editor of Pacific Economic Review, and Associate Editor of the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Comparative Economics and the China Economic Review. Since 2021, he has served on a number of public bodies, including the Currency Board Sub-Committee of the HKMA’s Exchange Fund Advisory Committee and the Minimum Wage Commission in Hong Kong.

Heiwai holds a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from UCLA. His research interests span a wide range of theoretical and empirical topics in international trade, with a specific focus on production networks, global value chains, and China. His research has been published in leading journals in economics, including American Economic Review and Journal of International Economics. His research and opinions have been covered by BBC, Bloomberg, China Daily, CNA, CNN, Financial Times, New York Times, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, South China Morning Post, and various think tanks such as the Brookings Institution and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Professor Heiwai TANG

Director, Asia Global Institute

Sequence of speakers is in alphabetical order of surname.