SFST gets better grasp of needs of companies go global in Poland (with photos)
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On September 25 (Warsaw time), Mr Hui visited the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) and met with its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Tomasz Bardziłowski, as well as other management members. The GPW was founded by the Polish State Treasury and is a major financial instrument exchange in Central and Eastern Europe.
During the meeting, Mr Hui introduced to them the strong momentum of Hong Kong's stock market which has an average daily turnover for the first eight months of 2025 of EUR 27 billion, and the policy support behind the success. He said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is committed to strengthening the breadth and depth of the listing platform and securities market. New initiatives were just announced by the Chief Executive in his 2025 Policy Address aiming to continuously strengthen the stock market, including further optimising the regimes for listing on the Main Board and issuing structured products, as well as encouraging more overseas enterprises to seek secondary listings in Hong Kong. The GPW considers the Mainland and Hong Kong to be growth engines for economy nowadays. Mr Hui anticipated more connections could be established with the GPW to increase the diversity of both stock markets, including real-world asset tokenisation which the GPW is interested in.
Later at a meeting with the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Poland, Mr Michał Baranowski, Mr Hui introduced to him the stellar performance of Hong Kong in wealth management and its equity market, as well as new initiatives aiming to drive financial development, such as building an international gold trading market which will comprise a Government-led central clearing system for gold.
He then met with the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of Poland, Mr Jarosław Neneman; the Director of the International Tax Policy Department in the MoF of Poland, Mr Cezary Krysiak; and the Director of the International Cooperation Department in the MoF of Poland, Mr Paweł Siwek, to request the removal of Hong Kong from Poland's "list of jurisdictions with harmful tax practice" (the List). Mr Hui highlighted that Hong Kong had been fully supporting international efforts in enhancing tax transparency and combating tax evasion and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had not identified any harmful tax regimes in Hong Kong.
Noting that Hong Kong had been rated by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes as largely compliant in the international standards on exchange of information on request and is also not on the European Union’s watchlist on tax co-operation, the Polish MoF, taking into account all the circumstances, will positively consider removing Hong Kong from the List.
Mr Hui also proposed to start negotiations on a Comprehensive Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement (CDTA) between Hong Kong and Poland as soon as practicable. Both sides see that a CDTA could be conducive to bilateral trade activities, bringing substantial mutual benefits.
In the afternoon, Mr Hui had a meeting with the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Wojciech Zajączkowski. Mr Hui told him that Hong Kong has maintained its ranking of third place globally, with the rating gaps with first place (New York) and second place (London) narrowed to two points and one point respectively in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) 38 Report published on the same day. Hong Kong leaped to first place in the world in fintech offerings, and the rankings in the areas of "business environment", "infrastructure", and "reputational and general" also rose to first globally. With the gateway roles of Poland and Hong Kong in their respective regions, the two places can co-operate in various areas to facilitate Mainland enterprises to enter the European market, and European enterprises can access the Asian and Chinese markets through Hong Kong.
Mr Hui also joined a business luncheon organised by the China Construction Bank to meet with management of various renowned Mainland enterprises which have set up a presence in Europe. He assured them that Hong Kong is determined to position itself as a platform for "bringing in and going global" to support Mainland enterprises in seeking overseas expansion. He noted that aside from world-class professional services and its robust financial regime, Hong Kong has much more to offer to assist enterprises to expand further.
On the same day, Mr Hui also met with the Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Poland, Ms Li Danhong, to update her on the financial landscape in Hong Kong.
Before concluding his visit to Poland on September 26 (Tychy time), Mr Hui went for a visit to the Sanhua AWECO Polish Appliance to meet with their management team and tour its Tychy plant which is the largest among the three key manufacturing facilities of the company across Europe.
At a meeting with the General Manager and Chief Financial Officer of the Sanhua EMEA Shared Management Platform of Sanhua Group, Mr Yao Bing, and the Chief Executive Officer of Sanhua Aweco EMEA, Mr Liu Shifeng, Mr Hui elaborated to them on the various initiatives Hong Kong will launch and the professional services available to assist Mainland companies to go global through Hong Kong. He also had a deep discussion with them to learn more about the challenges that Mainland companies have encountered during their journey of overseas expansion.
Mr Hui will return to Hong Kong on September 27.
Ends/Saturday, September 27, 2025
Issued at HKT 10:00
Issued at HKT 10:00
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