Co-head of private wealth at TSMP Law Corporation Jennifer Chia commented in a Business Times article published on 7 September 2020 on the Variable Capital Companies Act attracting funds, especially from Hong Kong.

She said that funds and family offices have long found it attractive to be in Singapore and the new VCC regime just made it even better.

“Most of the larger funds and home offices started moving about two years ago when China started exerting more pressure on the legal framework of Hong Kong. Hence, so much has been moved (or have been set in motion already). If anything, nothing new but an acceleration of plans to move now to places like Singapore,” she added.

Singapore’s attractiveness, other than its tax and government incentives, would be its cosmopolitan character, a population which has multi-language skills in English and Mandarin, stable government, clear rule of law and safe living environment to build families, she said.

“These have always been attractive to families from China.”

“That said, Hong Kong would still remain the base for China investments and projects, but with the current economic crisis, ultra high net worth families have been looking to diversifying their risks by spreading their eggs into other baskets, such as Singapore, which is a viable alternative for investments outside North Asia, especially for Asean and Australasia,” she said.