Reflections on China's market evolution over the last 30 years

When I joined the firm in 2002, FSSA Investment Managers, known as First State Investments back then, managed US$2 billion of assets and I was the only employee in Hong Kong. Today, FSSA has a team of over 30 people and US$30 billion ($40 billion) under management (as at the end of December 2022). The FSSA China Growth strategy has gone from US$3 million in assets when I first joined, to US$3 billion today, a thousand-fold increase in 20 years.

While hard work certainly played a role, we were also in the right place at the right time — in the midst of China’s accelerating economic development, its opening up to the rest of the world and the move towards market reforms.