Goldman Sachs CEO says Hong Kong, China travel curbs to impact talent

Article content material

SINGAPORE — Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon mentioned on Wednesday that he doesn’t count on Hong Kong and China to ease their tight journey restrictions anytime quickly and this posed a problem for workers.

“I believe there are some challenges, China, Hong Kong have a sure strategy proper now to COVID and subsequently they’re comparatively closed,” Solomon mentioned on the Bloomberg New Economic system Discussion board in Singapore.

Solomon mentioned he was making his first journey to Asia since February 2020, in a area he would usually go to 4-5 occasions a 12 months.

Article content material

“I haven’t been to Hong Kong or China and don’t count on that I’ll be capable of go for fairly a while.”

Hong Kong has among the many hardest coranavirus quarantine guidelines on the earth, with necessities that guests spend as much as three weeks in a lodge after arriving from many international locations all over the world.

Solomon’s feedback come days after JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon mentioned he believed Hong Kong’s strict pandemic measures are making it more durable for the funding financial institution to retain workers within the monetary hub, Bloomberg Information reported.

Hong Kong chief govt Carrie Lam on Tuesday defended the choice to grant Dimon an exemption from having to serve quarantine when he visited town this week, saying JPMorgan was a significant financial institution which meant he had “essential enterprise” in Hong Kong.

Article content material

Solomon mentioned a lot of Goldman’s workers in Hong Kong and China have passports from different international locations and have been caught up within the journey restrictions when it comes to leaving or coming again.

“That’s not a fantastic dynamic for expertise however we’re in a second of time the place we’re going to need to navigate that and that’s definitely a headwind for world expertise in that a part of the world, proper at this second,” he mentioned.

Solomon mentioned he didn’t count on the journey restrictions to loosen up within the subsequent couple of months.

Enterprise foyer teams have pushed the Hong Kong authorities to ease the strict necessities, saying the principles are undermining town’s standing as a monetary hub. (Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Scott Murdoch; Extra reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan; Enhancing by Angus MacSwan)