四级复习资料大全阅读(20)_大学英语阅读

四级复习资料大全阅读(20)

　　Asias dueling financial hubs invest a lot of capitalreal and emotionalin whats often cast as a zero-sum contest for the affection of foreign companies. Yet both cities have done so well wooing them of late that the major threat facing each isnt the other, but bottlenecks in the foreign infrastructure common to both. High-end housing costs are pushing past records set before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, prompting Singapores founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, to lament, We must check this hike in rents or we will lose our competitiveness.

　　Talent is getting tougher to find as both economies near full employment. Office rents are driving even the richest investment banks to seek cheaper alternatives to prime downtown addresses. And as both cities increase their populations by luring hundreds of thousands of additional outsiders over the coming decade, locals are getting squeezed. There may be a political cost if Singaporeans feel priced out by foreigners, warns Charles Chong, head of a parliamentary committee on national development in Singapore.

　　Both cities are, in a sense, victims of their success. Each ranks among the most efficient spots on the planet to register new businesses. They boast world-class banking, accounting and legal services, undergirded by respect for contracts and commercial codes not found in the rest of Asia. In a region awash in cash from record trade surpluses, Chinese expansion and a flood of new stock listings, the cities have posted incredible GDP growth numbers of late6.8 percent and 7.9 percent for Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively, last year.