The Zhitong Finance App learned that on October 12, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong, Qiu Yinghua, briefed members on the main measures relating to economic and trade development in the “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2026-2030)” (“Five-Year Plan”) and the “Chief Executive's 2026 Policy Address” (“Policy Address”) at the Trade and Industry Advisory Committee meeting.
Qiu Yinghua said that according to the overall layout and development blueprint of the “Five-Year Plan”, this year's “Policy Address” introduced a series of measures to strengthen Hong Kong's position and role as an international trade center, give full play to Hong Kong's advantages in internationalization, deepen the construction of a regional intellectual property trade center, and create more opportunities for the business community.
Qiu Yinghua pointed out that even in the face of various challenges brought about by geopolitics and trade protectionism, Hong Kong's foreign trade has shown strong resilience. In 2025, Hong Kong was the fifth largest commodity trading economy in the world, and since this year, Hong Kong's export performance has been encouraging. In August, Hong Kong's overall export value rose 53% year over year, and has recorded double digit growth for the 19th consecutive month.
In this regard, he shared with members the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's multi-pronged measures to continue to expand international economic and trade networks and consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international trade center. At the same time, the HKSAR Government will promote high-quality trade development, strive to upgrade in the direction of digitalization and diversification, and give full play to Hong Kong's advantages in the professional service industry to establish Hong Kong as a high-value-added supply chain service center to help enterprises connect with overseas supply chains and expand international business.
Qiu Yinghua also mentioned that in response to the country's “15th Five-Year Plan”, which clearly supports Hong Kong's construction of a regional intellectual property trade center, the SAR government is making every effort to build a vibrant intellectual property ecosystem through a number of complementary measures, including launching an intellectual property financing sandbox, implementing a pilot support plan for patent valuation, establishing the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Institute, and establishing the Intellectual Property Trade Development Strategy Committee, thereby deepening the foundation for Hong Kong's construction of a regional intellectual property trade center.
Furthermore, Qiu Yinghua pointed out that SMEs account for 98% of Hong Kong enterprises and are critical to Hong Kong's economic development. Therefore, the “Policy Address” announced the introduction of 10 measures to support the diversified development, upgrading and transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Among them, the maximum funding limit for “Easy Application” under the “Special Fund for Brand Development, Upgrading and Transformation, and Expanding the Domestic Sales Market” (BUD Special Fund) has been raised to 150,000 yuan; the “BUD Special Fund” provides more targeted funding for artificial intelligence projects, and the geographical scope of the fund's funding will also be extended to Uzbekistan and Qatar. In addition, the Trade and Industry Department will assist SMEs in formulating brand development strategies through the “4-in-1” SME Service Centre, while the Hong Kong Trade Development Council will also strengthen the “E-Commerce Express” service to enhance the popularity and coverage of Hong Kong brands in overseas e-commerce markets.
Qiu Yinghua hopes to work hand in hand with the industry to use the Five-Year Plan and the “Policy Address” as action plans to further promote economic and trade development, in particular to promote the development of the northern metropolitan area and assist mainland enterprises to go overseas, strengthen Hong Kong's important role as a “super contact” and “super value-added person”, and inject new momentum into the economy.