HK grows as global financial center

Hong Kong will cement its existing advantages and start pursuing new development opportunities in asset management, risk management and offshore renminbi business as promulgated in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said at the 15th Asian Financial Forum held in Hong Kong on Monday.

“We are diversifying our fund structures by introducing open-end investment companies and limited partnership fund regimes. Nearly 400 limited partnership funds have been set up in Hong Kong over the past year or so,” Lam said in her video address to the AFF’s opening ceremony.

“We are also working to provide profit-tax exemptions for qualified onshore and offshore fund transactions and the carried interest of private equity funds operating in Hong Kong. We are also considering tax concessions to enhance Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a family office hub,” Lam said.

Lam also highlighted that Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s special purpose acquisition company listing regime, implemented at the beginning of this year, is offering a judicious balance between market development and investor protections.

Last year, daily turnover on the Hong Kong stock market averaged over $21 billion, up almost 29 percent over 2020. Hong Kong IPOs raised $42 billion last year, making the city the world’s fourth-biggest fundraising hub. The city’s fund management business grew 21 percent to around $4.5 trillion.

In risk management, Hong Kong has offered profit-tax concessions to select insurance businesses and expanded the scope of insurable risk for captive insurers based in Hong Kong. The city also issued its first insurance-linked securities in October.

Hong Kong is also working to enhance mutual access of the insurance market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Lam said. “We are working to establish after-sales service centers in the Greater Bay Area cities and preparing for early implementation of the unilateral recognition policy on cross-boundary motor vehicle insurance.”

Shang Fulin, director of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said the external environment is ever more complex and unstable amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With its robust economy, the mainland is proposing the dual circulation policy to boost economic growth through leveraging market resources of the domestic market and overseas countries, enlarging opening-up, and facilitating international cooperation,” Shang said in his video speech.

Xiao Yuanqi, vice-chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said in a pre-recorded video that governments should strive to contain rising inflation and solve supply chain bottlenecks. They should also mull the timing and the size of exiting fiscal stimulus and quantitative easing policies.

Organized by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the 15th AFF attracted more than 170 global business leaders, policymakers, financial experts, investors, entrepreneurs, technology giants and economists. They will speak in nearly 60 sessions.