The Zhitong Finance App learned that on October 29, Hong Kong's Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Xu Zhengyu, pointed out in his opening speech at the “Shanghai-Hong Kong Cooperation and Cooperation Forum - 2026 Shanghai-Hong Kong Cooperation and Exchange Forum and Symposium on Serving Chinese Enterprises Going Overseas” in Shanghai that the current global economic and trade pattern, industrial division of labor and capital flows are undergoing profound adjustments. Chinese enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises and leading technology enterprises in Shanghai, are already an inevitable trend of high-quality development. Relying on the unique institutional advantages of “one country, two systems”, the common law system, and a regulatory and professional service system in line with the international community, Hong Kong continues to play the role of the country's “super contact” and “super value-added person”. It is definitely the most stable international platform for Chinese enterprises to explore international markets, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, overseas operations and risk management.
In order to accurately meet the strategic needs of enterprises to go overseas, Xu Zhengyu proposed four major directions: First, give full play to the advantages of offshore RMB hubs. Hong Kong has the world's largest and most liquid offshore RMB fund pool, and handles the vast majority of the world's offshore RMB settlement business. Overseas enterprises can use Hong Kong to carry out cross-border RMB financing, settlement and exchange to unify the management of overseas working capital, thereby effectively coping with exchange rate fluctuations, reducing cross-border capital allocation costs, and promoting the wide application of RMB in overseas trade, project investment and capacity cooperation scenarios.
Second, make good use of multi-level capital markets. Hong Kong's complete multi-level capital market provides financing channels for Shanghai state-owned enterprises and technology enterprises throughout the life cycle. The Hong Kong stock market continues to consolidate its position as the world's preferred IPO (initial public offering) fund-raising platform. International bond financing has long led Asia, and the issuance of green and sustainable bonds has been at the forefront of Asia for many years. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is continuously optimizing tax relief systems for family offices and asset management, and has gathered a large number of the world's top private equity funds and international capital.
Third, improve the treasury and risk management ecosystem. The HKSAR Government continues to implement corporate treasury centers and cross-border risk management packages to accurately respond to the core pain points of Chinese enterprises going overseas. The HKSAR Government, together with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Department, launched the “Action Plan for the Development of Hong Kong Corporate Treasury Centres”, which actively guides high-quality mainland enterprises to settle in Hong Kong and set up treasury centers or regional operating headquarters by providing four major actions, including providing half (i.e. 8.25 percent) profit tax rate concessions and targeted promotions. Furthermore, in the process of going overseas, “managing risk” is as important as “finding capital.” The HKSAR Government, together with the Hong Kong Insurance Authority (Hong Kong Insurance Regulatory Authority), strongly encourages mainland enterprises to set up exclusive self-insurance companies in Hong Kong and develop insurance-linked securities to help enterprises internalize global business risks and deal with cross-border risks such as overseas operations and extreme disasters.
Fourth, deepen the connectivity of gold and commodities, and enhance the voice of international pricing. The interconnection between the Shanghai gold market and the Hong Kong market is an extremely important new direction for financial cooperation between Shanghai and Hong Kong. The country is actively promoting the construction of a commodity trading ecosystem. Shanghai and Hong Kong can definitely use their respective advantages to deepen cooperation in the fields of cross-border gold and precious metals trading, pricing, settlement and risk hedging. Xu Zhengyu said that he looks forward to working closely with Shanghai to help overseas enterprises increase their pricing voice in the global commodity market, improve cross-border asset allocation, and protect international trade in the real economy.
Xu Zhengyu said that the SAR government earlier set up a special cross-departmental class to support enterprises to go overseas, and work with various regulatory agencies to provide tailored one-stop services. At present, the special class has helped hundreds of mainland enterprises build an international platform in Hong Kong, driving large first-year direct investment, covering core areas such as advanced manufacturing, digital economy, green energy, and cross-border trade.
He added that in the future, the SAR government will continue to optimize relevant policies in accordance with the blueprint of the “Hong Kong First Five-Year Plan” and the “Policy Address”, and deepen normalized cooperation with the Shanghai State-owned Assets Administration Commission, SPD Bank and other institutions to achieve the synergy effect of “finance +”. Combining Hong Kong's top professional services in the fields of green finance, fintech, cross-border compliance, intellectual property protection and international dispute resolution, we support Shanghai state-owned enterprises, technology enterprises, and even other mainland enterprises to use Hong Kong as a bridge to promote the export of new quality productivity to the outside world and escort enterprises throughout the process of going overseas.