Digital corporate identity platform to roll out in 2026

June Chen

Secretary of the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau Sun Dong expects to roll out a digital corporate identity platform in 2026 and explore the application of mutual recognition with the mainland on the identity of digital enterprises.

The platform aims to enable authentication of the identity of enterprises using electronic government services or conducting online business transactions in a secure, convenient and efficient manner.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong is promoting green transition with five key strategies, including increasing green capital, reaching consensus on sustainability standards, empowering carbon trading, bolstering green financing and developing green technologies, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said.

At the Green Tech Summit yesterday, Hui said the authority has allocated more than HK$200 million to support the issuance of 470 kinds of green and sustainable debt instruments in the city through the Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme as of early October.

Earlier, the government extended the scheme to 2027.

Besides, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is expanding the scale of sustainable finance category contents, aiming to build the SAR as one of the first batches of regions that apply global standards in green finance and improve Hong Kong's reputation as a green financial hub.

Also yesterday, Salina Yan, the Permanent Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (Financial Services), said in the ASIFMA Sustainable Finance Conference 2024 that the volume of green and sustainable bonds arranged in Hong Kong increased by about five times from around US$6 billion (HK$46.63 billion) in 2019 to almost US$30 billion last year, topping the Asian market from 2021 to 2023.

In other news, a report co-compiled by BOC Hong Kong (2388) and S&P Global showed that only 13.4 percent of financing institutions set net zero emission goals in the Asia-Pacific area, much lower than 43 percent in Europe and 15 percent in North America.