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The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, has encouraged the Canadian securities industry to use Hong Kong as a platform to access the business and investment opportunities arising from the Mainland's robust economic growth.
Mr Ma was addressing a conference in Whistler, Canada today (June 26, Vancouver time).
The address was made at the 90th annual conference of the Investment Industry Association of Canada, formerly the industry association arm of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA) which is the national self-regulatory organisation of the securities industry.
Delivering a keynote speech entitled "Hong Kong as a Preferred Platform for Accessing the Business and Investment Opportunities in Mainland China", Mr Ma outlined the strengths of Hong Kong as an international financial centre and its unparalleled advantages because of the close ties and economic links with the Mainland.
He told the Canadian audience that Hong Kong's pivotal role as the gateway to the Mainland gave rise to lots of opportunities for co-operation between Hong Kong and Canada. He shared with them some areas where Hong Kong could facilitate Canadian companies to explore the business and investment opportunities available on the Mainland and Hong Kong's role as the premier capital formation centre for Mainland enterprises and as a major asset management centre.
"With 13 years of experience in raising capital for Mainland companies, Hong Kong has firmly established its position as the preferred listing venue for Mainland enterprises," he said.
"The IPO by the Bank of China last month, which was reported to be the biggest IPO worldwide in the recent six years, has demonstrated again to the world the growing participation of Mainland enterprises in the global capital markets as well as the substantial fund-raising capability of Hong Kong's stock market.
"Our financial services industries will continue to capitalise on the growth opportunities on the Mainland. Our markets offer an abundant supply of investment opportunities with huge growth potential to investors from all over the world," he said.
On asset management, Mr Ma said that with high domestic savings in Asia, in particular on the Mainland, positive regional economic outlook and the vast pension scheme assets, there was great potential for Hong Kong to expand its asset management business further. "The opening up of the Mainland economy and the financial reforms underway are generating more and more business opportunities for our asset management and private investment industries," he said.
Noting that there were only a few Canadian brokerage firms in Hong Kong, operating on a limited scale, Mr Ma encouraged Canadian investment dealers to take advantage of the excellent prospects of Hong Kong's asset management industry and use Hong Kong as the base to expand their business in the region.
"With our unique strengths and close ties with the Mainland, we provide an excellent financial intermediation channel for funds flowing into and out of the Mainland.
"There is no shortage of lucrative investment and business opportunities, and more and more prestigious fund houses and other financial institutions are coming to Hong Kong. You surely would not want to lag behind," Mr Ma said.
Ends/Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:12
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