More global innovative and “new economy” companies are migrating to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as a go-to destination to drive meaningful business impact, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in his Sunday blog.
The Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises – an HKSAR government agency announced by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his 2022 policy address and established in December 2022 -- will reveal a new batch of more than 10 enterprises setting foot in the city next month.
According to Chan, more than half of the companies are industry leaders or rising stars from the highly sought-after fields of artificial intelligence technology and big data analytics based in various countries and regions, including the Chinese mainland, the United States and Europe.
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He noted that a tech firm had recently secured 8,000 square feet (743.2 square meters) in a Grade A office building in the city as its global business headquarters. The company will use Hong Kong as an international center for finance and research and development to expand its business footprint across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Chan is due to lead a delegation of local financial and tech firms to the Middle East at the end of this month, adding flesh to the SAR government’s unremitting efforts to entrench the city’s position as a “super connector” and “super value-adder” through a whole package of “bringing in” and “going global” policies and initiatives.
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The trip follows the finance chief’s recent fruitful visit to Spain and London to promote Hong Kong’s impeccable strengths with the backing of “one country, two systems”, and the potentially huge opportunities from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative.
Chan believes the SAR’s spectacular stock market rally will “speed up the listing plans of many companies, including a few tech enterprises, and entice more firms to establish their presence in Hong Kong”.
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“With a constellation of promising innovation enterprises seeking Hong Kong listings, it will diversify the industry composition of listed companies, putting the city’s new economic growth engine under the spotlight and attracting the interest of long-term investors. The vibrant, dynamic capital market, in turn, will lure more quality companies to Hong Kong, leading to a virtuous circle,” he said.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index has soared more than 5,600 points in the past 15 trading days to close at a two-and-a-half-year high, lifting the market cap of Hong Kong stocks to HK$39.4 trillion ($5.05 trillion). The average daily turnover reached HK$192 billion from September to Oct 4 -- more than double that of August.
