Tomorrow the HKMA opens its summer exhibition, which will run for three successive long weekends in different parts of Hong Kong. The aim of this major community event is to explain how money works in Hong Kong.
We all make use of money in a variety of different forms every day. Yet we don't always pay much attention to the various aspects of money that are of great importance to all of us: how the value of money is kept stable, for example; how money is stored and put to work through the banks; how money circulates around the economy; how different forms of money - from coins and bank notes to the latest e-money - function. To some, these are matters to be taken for granted and not worth too much close attention: this may (to take an optimistic view) be a reflection of their confidence in the HKMA's ability to perform its functions. To others these are matters only for the experts, and in any case they are too dry and technical for the rest of us to understand. Both of these positions are open to question.
The monetary and banking systems are too vital a part of our world for us to take for granted, and understanding how money work is not necessarily so difficult. The more we understand money the better will be our decisions on what we do with our money. This is regardless of whether the decision is a small matter concerning the use of cash or a credit card to pay a restaurant bill, or the larger matter of how best to invest one's life savings.
To help facilitate a better community understanding of money, the HKMA is organising a travelling exhibition entitled 'Money in Hong Kong'. It will take place in three successive Friday-to-Monday weekends in three successive venues beginning this Friday in Discovery Park in Tsuen Wan, then moving to Festival Walk in Kowloon the next weekend, and then to Pacific Place in Hong Kong the following weekend. Of course, it is not possible to cover every aspect of money and the HKMA's work in a small exhibition. We have, therefore, focused on what we see as some of the important aspects - keeping the Hong Kong dollar stable, managing Hong Kong's official reserves, and ensuring that money moves around the economy smoothly - as well as looking at new developments in e-banking.
We have also placed what is going on around us today in a larger historical perspective - to show how Hong Kong's monetary system has developed over the decades, and to put on display some of the different shapes and forms that money has taken over the years in this city. One thing that has struck me looking over the panels and exhibits for the historical parts of the exhibition is that money can be a thing of great artistic value and historical interest as well as just an article of everyday use.
At the exhibition venues there will, at specified times, be special events, including demonstrations on how to identify counterfeit bank notes and historical workshops on coins and bank notes. There will be souvenirs too - a souvenir booklet on the exhibition and a souvenir mousepad for those who are successful in solving a computer quiz that we have on display at the venues. There will be student ambassadors from the universities and HKMA staff present at the exhibition to assist visitors and explain our work in more detail.
We shall formally launch the exhibition at Tsuen Wan on Saturday afternoon, when, at 2:30 p.m., we shall also unveil the new HKMA website.
The HKMA is committed to a policy of transparency. This functions on a number of different planes. We make our day-to-day operations as visible as possible to the market and we regularly publish our accounts, statistics and a great deal of other financial information. We do this because we believe that transparency contributes to financial stability and growth. We explain the nature and significance of our work through a number of educational and community programmes because we believe that a wider understanding and discussion of what we do strengthens confidence in our policies and in the monetary and banking systems as a whole. This exhibition is our major community event for 2000. We hope that if it is well received we shall be organising more events of this kind in the future.
Please join us at the exhibition, and bring your family and friends.
Joseph Yam
27 July 2000
More information on the Summer Exhibition can be found here.
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