Hong Kong’s finance minister urges HKEX to ‘internationalise’ and gear up for next phase

Hong Kong’s finance minister has urged the city’s bourse operator to take steps to make it more attractive for overseas companies to list and introduce new products for trading digital assets.

Speaking at a ceremony on Friday to mark 25 years of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) as a listed company, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said he also wanted the exchange to be technically prepared to become the first bourse in the region to shorten the transaction settlement time to one day – T+1.

“The transformation of HKEX reflects the extraordinary rise of our country and Hong Kong over the past quarter of a century, underlining our pivotal role in supporting the opening-up of the mainland’s financial markets,” Chan told hundreds of attendants at the HKEX Connect Hall, which was the exchange’s trading floor until 2017.

Looking ahead, Chan said the HKEX needs to “internationalise”, pointing out that 60 per cent of the 2,600 listed companies were from the mainland and accounted for 80 per cent of the market capitalisation.

“Amid growing geopolitical challenges, Hong Kong has become a safe harbour for international investors seeking to diversify their portfolios,” he said. “HKEX can also emerge as a preferred listing platform for companies from Asean, the Middle East and other regions, especially those that find it challenging to access capital markets in the US or Europe.”