About 550 mainland and overseas firms flocked to set up and expand businesses in Hong Kong in the first three quarters of this year, estimated to bring direct investment of over HK$70 billion in their first year of setting up or expanding, Invest Hong Kong said on Friday.
Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and Invest Hong Kong have jointly announced that the 11th Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK Festival 2026 will take place from November 2 to November 6, focusing on three key initiatives.
Invest Hong Kong’s director-general of investment promotion, Alpha Lau Hai-suen, said in response to the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan and Hong Kong’s first five-year plan, this year’s event will focus on finance, technological innovation, and global expansion to drive sustained growth.
The event is expected to attract more than 45,000 participants from over 120 regions, and bring together more than 80 speakers, 800 exhibitors and start-ups, as well as over 30 mainland and overseas delegations, Lau noted.
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said Hong Kong has now more than 400 licensed institutions related to virtual assets, and tokenised finance has moved from experimentation to practical application.
As of the end of last year, Hui said the scale of tokenised deposit custody at Hong Kong banks had exceeded US$14 billion (HK$109.2 billion). The government's digital green bond issuance last month raised about US$20 billion, setting a record for the world's largest digital bond and making it the first digital bond settled with tokenized Hong Kong dollar deposits.
Hui said digital finance is also integrated into the new financial development of the commodity market, with Hong Kong’s central clearing and settlement system trial operation for over-the-counter gold transactions already in commencement, allowing for the establishment of a central digital ledger to record settlement activities. He said the system will be launched in the first quarter next year.
Meanwhile, Hui said the Securities and Futures Commission will improve its regulatory framework to facilitate the issuance and trading of tokenised products of gold and other suitable real-world assets on licensed platforms.
He also noted the Generative AI Sandbox++ has expanded to multiple financial sectors, including banking, securities and capital markets, asset and wealth management, insurance, mandatory provident fund, and also stored value facilities.
Lau added that Hong Kong is currently home to more than 5,200 start-ups, including about 20 unicorns. Through a global dedicated task force, the authorities have supported more than 300 mainland enterprises in establishing a presence in the city, and have built a cross-sector professional services platform bringing together over 200 service providers to fully assist enterprises in reaching international markets through Hong Kong.
