Global financial leaders and banking titans flying into Hong Kong for a high-level investment summit this week kick-started their itinerary on Tuesday with a taste of local cuisine, art and music at a glittering banquet at the city’s stunning museum of visual culture.

The dinner, hosted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de facto central bank, was held at the M+ museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District overlooking Victoria Harbour.

Banking heavyweights are visiting the city this week for the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit – the largest top-level executive gathering since the coronavirus pandemic began three years ago.

Guests also enjoyed a tour of the museum before dinner.

The three-day banking summit, organised by the Monetary Authority, will bring together about 200 global financial leaders from more than 100 major institutions, including more than 40 global group chairs or chief executives.

The dinner guests included the who’s who of the global financial industry as well as the elites of the local political and business sectors.

Among them were Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn, JPMorgan Chase president Daniel Pinto and KKR co-chief executive officer Joseph Bae.

Local dignitaries attending the dinner included Executive Council member and former HKMA head Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, and incumbent Monetary Authority chief Eddie Yue Wai-man and his deputies Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang and Howard Lee Tat-chi.

Also there were Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun, former financial services minister Frederick Ma Si-hang, and tycoon and Trade Development Council chairman Peter Lam Kin-ngok. Exco convenor and legislator Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee also attended.

The food served at the eight-course dinner was mainly Chinese cuisine.

The dinner menu had eight courses with Chinese tea also served.

On the menu to start with were smoked mackerel with ginger and garlic sauce, braised vegetarian bean curd sheet rolls with fungi, steamed crabmeat and scallop dumpling served with shrimp and egg white.

The guests were also served steamed prawn with egg white and spring onions, double boiled chicken soup with bamboo pith, mushroom and greens, as well as baked crab shell filled with crabmeat and Cheddar cheese.

For the seafood lovers, there was steamed giant grouper fillet with Sichuan peppercorn and soy sauce. Vegetarian fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf was also available.

The guest list for the dinner included the who’s who of the global financial industry as well as the elites of the local political and business sectors.

Wrapping up the dinner were various local desserts, including red bean soup, “wife cake”, baked walnut tart and – perhaps needless to mention – Chinese tea.

The Grand Hyatt hotel was said to have handled the catering.

The good food was complemented with music from local musicians, with the popular Cantonese pop song “Below the Lion Rock” played at one point.

The 1970s song is regarded as an informal anthem for Hong Kong that calls for solidarity and rising above difficulties.

The museum tour covered four galleries.

During the two-hour dinner a “fireside chat” was held with renowned art collector Dr Uli Sigg and hosted by Bernard Chan, vice-chairman of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.

Sigg, who also sits on the M+ board and acquisitions committee, donated 1,463 artworks to the authority in 2012 worth HK$1.3 billion. The authority paid him HK$177 million for another 47 works.

Chan told the press before the dinner he would ask Sigg questions relating to his donations and the city’s role in developing the art ecosystem.

Before the dinner, an hour-long tour of the M+ contemporary art museum was arranged for the guests.

Authority chief executive Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee said the guests would be given a guided tour around four galleries, including the Sigg Collection of contemporary Chinese art and a gallery on local culture.

Bernard Chan (left) joins Uli Sigg for a “fireside chat” during the dinner.

Opened last November, the M+ is one of the centrepieces of the West Kowloon Cultural District. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup, the building is composed of a podium and a slender tower that fuse into the shape of an upside down “T”.

It has 17,000 square metres of exhibition space across 33 galleries, three cinema houses, and other facilities.

It is also Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture.

Fung told the Post the gathering of top bankers at the museum gave them a good chance to promote the cultural facilities.

“When the Hong Kong Monetary Authority contacted us saying they wanted to host a dinner in M+ for the leaders, we were overwhelmed and very excited, because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promote M+ and West Kowloon to these important people,” Fung said.

“They will be the people who speak for Hong Kong based on their experiences in Hong Kong.”

Musicians keep the dinner guests entertained.

Speaking to the press ahead of the dinner, Bernard Chan, who also chairs the M+ museum, said: “Obviously many of these financial leaders have not been back to Hong Kong in the last two years due to the pandemic.

“So this is a wonderful occasion for the international bankers to have the chance to understand what has happened to Hong Kong the last two years, especially on the art and cultural front.”

Chan added: “We have two world class museums open during this time, M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum. So I will also take the opportunity to explain to them the West Kowloon Cultural District and how Hong Kong can turn into a national cultural metropolis.”

At the Four Seasons Hotel in Central, a member of staff confirmed to the Post that some attendees would stay there, while non-summit guests would also be served during the conference period.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman (left) is among those in town for the summit and attended the dinner.

Restrictions have been eased for the summit’s overseas participants, who are allowed to dine in designated restaurants and meet clients and staff in private venues even if they remain under medical observation upon arrival.

Under the current rules, arrivals are required to undergo a three-day medical surveillance period at home or in a hotel, and are barred from entering premises such as restaurants during that period.

Among the guests streaming in and out of the hotel on Tuesday was former Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who was spotted in the lobby at around 12.30pm, flanked by security.

Dressed in a pink blazer, Lam did not stop for questions and hurried into a lift. She left after about 1½ hours. It was unclear if she went there for lunch or was meeting summit guests.