Blog

Building a Vibrant Economy and Striving for Development

A number of large-scale financial mega events are being held in Hong Kong in this quarter. Following the Asian Financial Forum in January and Hong Kong Green Week in February, the Financial Mega Event Week will be held this week. Among the events is the Wealth for Good in Hong Kong Summit organised by the Government.

Under the theme of “Growing with Certainty Amid Growing Uncertainty”, the Summit this year will focus on ways to help family offices to establish their operations in Hong Kong and thrive amid a challenging external environment. The Summit will bring together influential family offices from around the world, asset owners, wealth successors and professional managers. Around 400 participants from Hong Kong, the Mainland, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East will attend the Summit to take part in discussions on such topics as philanthropy, wealth succession and green development.

Co-organised by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), the Summit has stepped into its second year. It has attracted great attention from the asset and wealth management industry and the investment sector. The Summit will also demonstrate that Hong Kong is an international asset and wealth management hub, which proactively promotes the comprehensive development of the family office industry with our international network and professional platforms. In particular, we seek to explore new opportunities amid the global economic uncertainties, and channel global wealth to promote social progress.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Financial Mega Event Week.

The launching ceremony of the Financial Mega Event Week.

We released the Policy Statement on Developing Family Office Businesses in Hong Kong in March last year. Since then, a series of measures have been implemented to promote the development of family offices and related businesses in Hong Kong. As at February this year, the dedicated team of InvestHK assisted 58 family offices to set up or expand their operations in Hong Kong, and more than 100 family offices indicated that they had decided or were preparing to set up or expand their operations in Hong Kong.

According to the market study of the consultant commissioned by InvestHK, there were around 2 700 single family offices (i.e. not including multi-family offices) in Hong Kong as at the end of 2023. Around 900 of which were with a wealth level of over USD$100 million. This demonstrates the attractiveness of Hong Kong as an international financial centre to the wealth management sector, including family offices.

While exploring new funding sources, we are also actively attracting more strategic enterprises to come to Hong Kong. This will facilitate the matching of funds and promising projects, and help channel funds to advance the development of innovation and technology (I&T) and a more vibrant ecosystem of relevant industries locally.

Delivering a speech at the "OASES Partnership Signing Ceremony" organised by the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises last week.

Last week, we signed agreements with the second batch of strategic enterprises that would set up or expand their businesses in Hong Kong. Together with the first batch of strategic enterprises attracted last year, these 50 or so enterprises will invest more than $40 billion in total in Hong Kong, and create over 13 000 jobs, the majority of which would be research and development (R&D) and management positions.

Around half of these enterprises are engaged in life and health technology. Hong Kong has strong basic research capabilities, supported by world-renowned medical schools and authoritative experts. In addition, we are actively encouraging more pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises – whether they are local, or from the Mainland or other places – to conduct clinical trials in Hong Kong. This seeks to facilitate new drugs and medical devices developed in Hong Kong to enter the Mainland market under the future "Primary Evaluation" mechanism. To international medical and pharmaceutical enterprises, this presents a huge and attractive development opportunity. It is fair to say that we are making solid progress towards developing Hong Kong into a health and medical innovation hub.

Other strategic enterprises came from such sectors as artificial intelligence and data science, fintech, advanced manufacturing and new energy technology.

Approximately one-fifth of the two batches of strategic enterprises are from Europe and the United States. Looking ahead, we will continue to actively reach out to cutting-edge technology enterprises from different regions. The number of strategic enterprises attracted is expected to rise.

Indeed, besides making investments, these strategic enterprises would also mobilise their upstream, midstream and downstream partners in their industry chains to come to Hong Kong. The Government will continue to encourage R&D activities, accelerate the commercialisation of research outcomes, nurture local startups and I&T talents, promote new industrialisation, as well as strengthen the cooperation with sister cities in the Greater Bay Area. These will help promote the development of a more vibrant I&T ecosystem.

In the Signing Ceremony with representatives of strategic enterprises.

Meanwhile, InvestHK assisted approximately 380 Mainland and overseas enterprises to set up or expand their businesses in Hong Kong last year, an increase of nearly 30% compared with 2022. In the first two months of this year alone, InvestHK has assisted 100 Mainland and overseas companies to develop in Hong Kong, an increase of 74% compared with the same period last year. We are actively exploring more overseas connections and encouraging more companies to land in Hong Kong. The Government is considering opening additional Economic and Trade Offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. InvestHK also plans to engage consultants in Cairo, Egypt and Izmir, Turkey this year to strengthen its investment promotion work in the Belt and Road regions such as the Middle East and Central Asia.

Events in the Financial Mega Event Week also include the Milken Institute’s Global Investors’ Symposium. It is the first large-scale summit held in Hong Kong organised by the Institute, a US-based non-profit think tank, with the theme of “Thriving Together: Bridging Global Market”. The symposium will discuss the challenges and opportunities brought about by a changing world, technological advancements and shifting capital flows, with an expected attendance of over 550 participants. More than half of whom would be coming from outside Hong Kong. In addition, there will be the One Earth Summit which focuses on green development. The event is co-organised by the Institute of Sustainability and Technology (IST) and the Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA), a World Economic Forum initiative. Through promoting in-depth dialogues, the Summit aims to drive action towards achieving net-zero emissions and sustainable transition in Asia and around the world. Over 500 representatives, including government officials and business leaders, green finance experts, scholars, and international organisations from all over the world, will attend the Summit.

A stable and secure environment is conducive to investment. It is also necessary for us to take good care of both development and security. Both the financial and commercial sectors fully recognise the importance of a stable and secure social environment to their investments and operations in Hong Kong. With the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance coming into effect officially in Hong Kong yesterday, we have fulfilled our constitutional responsibility of legislating for Article 23 of the Basic Law, and further strengthened the shield to safeguard national security. For this, the whole government team felt excited and encouraged. From now on, let us be united, and focus our efforts on developing a vibrant economy and improving people’s livelihoods. Together, we will build a better future for Hong Kong.

March 24, 2024