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The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, urged Canadian financial institutions today (April 24, Toronto Time) in Toronto to use Hong Kong as the gateway to capitalise on the business opportunities in the Mainland.
"The opportunities are huge. So, my message is: don't miss the boat. But it's better late than never," Mr Ma said during his meetings with the Investment Industry Association of Canada and Canadian Bankers Association on the last day of his week-long promotional visit to the US and Canada.
In the morning, Mr Ma visited the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) where he opened the stock market before holding a meeting with the President of TSX Markets and Executive Vice-President of TSX Group, Mr Rik Parkhill.
Mr Ma also met 150 Hong Kong students in Canada and talked to them, among other things, about the career prospects in Hong Kong's financial services sector.
Mr Ma's promotional visit programme covered New York and Toronto. He spoke at a number of forums to promote Hong Kong as an international financial centre and the gateway to China. These forums included the luncheon meeting of the annual conference of the Committee of 100, which was formed by distinguished Chinese Americans in the US, and the Canada-Hong Kong business forum which coincided with the first Hong Kong - Fujian joint initiative in Canada.
Mr Ma also called on the Canadian Federal Minister of Finance, Mr Jim Flaherty and the Ontario Minister of Finance, Mr Greg Sorbara.
Ends/Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:40
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