Ronald Leung’s original, dated commentary is reproduced below. Views, invitations and product references reflect the time of publication; they are not investment advice, an offer, a guarantee of return or confirmation of current availability.
Hong Kong's gold plan has a number in it: 2,000 tonnes of storage capacity within three years.
That is a warehouse target, not a market target. The central clearing and settlement system began its trial run on 7 July, with the first phase of physical gold connect with Shanghai. Real infrastructure, and the right thing to build first.
But storage alone benchmarks us against London, and leaves us a counter where someone else's product changes hands.
The analogy: a world-class container terminal, no trucks, no ships. People call it a warehouse, because that is what it is.
Hong Kong's entrepot years worked because goods moved through the port, not because it was large.
So the question for any vault plan is what settles against the metal. Which products, on which rails, and who is allowed to hold them.
A vault is a building. A port is a market.
Disclosure: Esperanza operates a tokenised gold business. — Let's open the statute. A new breakdown every week.