Hong Kong will establish a centralized digital asset platform to support the issuance and settlement of digital bonds, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said.
This is to promote the application of fintech and enhance the efficiency of the asset management market, he said, adding that the platform will also be gradually extended to other digital assets and linked with other tokenisation platforms in the region.
The government will also amend the Inland Revenue Ordinance for implementing the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework as well as the amended Common Reporting Standard by the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) in the coming two years.
This will contribute to international efforts in enhancing tax transparency and combating cross‑border tax evasion, he said, adding that the government will introduce an amendment bill in the first half of this year.
The city will also introduce a bill this year to establish licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodian service providers, Chan said.
The first batch of stablecoin licences will be issued next month, he noted, adding that the government and financial regulators will continue facilitating issuers to explore different application scenarios in a compliant and risk-controlled manner.
The Securities and Futures Commission will further enhance the liquidity of the city’s digital asset market and facilitate the offering of more products and services to professional investors, as well as set up an accelerator to expedite market innovation, Chan noted.
He said the government will provide guidelines to clarify that registers of debenture holders can be kept in the form of a distributed ledger to support the application of tokenisation technology in bond issuance and transactions.
It will also explore the adoption of electronic signature for bond issuance documents and the digitalization of bearer bonds.
