Hong Kong's finance sector to benefit from AI, China opening, Asia wealth: think tank

Hong Kong's fiscal assemblage is good positioned to payment from the accelerated improvement of artificial quality (AI), China's opening up and wealthiness instauration successful the region, the president of the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) said connected Monday.

Hong Kong's markets volition play a large relation successful helping companies rise funds, portion the liberalisation of China's fiscal assemblage would fortify the city's relation arsenic a nexus betwixt the mainland and the remainder of the world, said Benjamin Hung Pi-cheng.

Additionally, the increasing wealthiness of Asian concern families could spur them to acceptable up household offices successful the metropolis to put and prosecute successful succession planning, the seasoned banker said.

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"Overall, Hong Kong has a batch of maturation opportunities," Hung said successful his archetypal media briefing since becoming the president of the authorities deliberation vessel successful January. "What we request to bash is to archer the satellite much astir the existent representation of Hong Kong."

The emergence of DeepSeek has proved to beryllium a catalyst for Hong Kong's banal market. Photo: AFP alt=The emergence of DeepSeek has proved to beryllium a catalyst for Hong Kong's banal market. Photo: AFP>

Hung, who is besides the planetary president of Standard Chartered, said galore radical overseas viewed the metropolis successful a antagonistic airy chiefly owed to what helium called misleading media reports that said Hong Kong had mislaid its verve and freedoms.

"FSDC members volition spell connected roadshows to archer the existent communicative of Hong Kong," Hung said. He said the ongoing marketplace rally made it a bully clip to beforehand the city, arsenic sentiment had improved substantially since China announced a stimulus bundle to enactment the system successful September, which was followed by DeepSeek's momentum-boosting breakthrough successful January.

The Hang Seng Index has precocious much than 17 per cent this twelvemonth aft an 18 per cent summation successful 2024. The Hang Seng Tech Index has precocious much than 35 per cent since Hangzhou-based DeepSeek unveiled an open-source ­reasoning exemplary that was comparable with those developed by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google - but astatine a overmuch little cost.

"DeepSeek's exertion breakthrough is simply a catalyst for planetary investors to alteration their views astir the Hong Kong market," Hung said.

He said the rising regular banal marketplace turnover - which averaged HK$300 cardinal (US$38.5 billion) for astir of past week, much than treble the mean regular turnover of HK$131 cardinal past year, was impervious that overseas investors had returned to the market.