Luanne Lim

Macroscope | Hong Kong’s budget lays groundwork for city’s economic renaissance, now businesses must play their part

The budget sought to position Hong Kong at the forefront of finance, innovation and technology, while capitalising on its place in the Greater Bay Area

While policies are in place to train the local workforce, and attract talent from abroad, realising the budget’s aims will also take a concerted effort from the city’s business sector

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Financial Secretary Paul Chan at government’s headquarters in Admiralty, with the Kowloon skyline in the background, on July 25, 2022. Photo: Nora Tam

Luanne Lim

Published: 1:30pm, 28 Feb 2023

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has unveiled a budget which, alongside a raft of measures to maintain assistance to Hong Kong’s vulnerable and smaller businesses, is part of an ambitious but clear-sighted plan to position the city at the forefront of the world’s most dynamic and exciting prospects for growth.

Chan’s budget played to Hong Kong’s unique strengths, especially when it comes to financial services.

He outlined plans to take advantage of the mainland’s continuing opening up by expanding the “connect” schemes and promoted our HK$35 trillion asset and wealth management industry. He highlighted new opportunities around the internationalisation of the renminbi – a market where Hong Kong has a 75 per cent share – such as offering renminbi settlement of carbon credits and potentially opening new futures markets in mainland bonds.

This initiative builds on months of work to highlight Hong Kong’s capital markets – including the government green bond programme, the planned issuance of infrastructure bonds, and a drive to persuade mainland borrowers to issue renminbi bonds in Hong Kong.

But Chan also pledged to boost our competitiveness in more niche fields where our geography and our history give us a competitive edge, including closer collaboration across the Greater Bay Area, developing our maritime services industry, intellectual property trading and others.

The drive to attract business to Hong Kong builds on Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s announcement last October that HK$30 billion would be set aside from the Future Fund to encourage businesses to set up in Hong Kong through investment in these companies, and government measures to attract more family offices to set up here.