China News Service, Hong Kong, September 27th: Title: Policy implementation speeds up and Hong Kong’s offshore RMB ecology continues to improve
China News Service reporter Xiang Luping
The Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission recently issued a strategic action plan, closely following the "First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030)" and the deployment of the new policy address, and benchmarking against the national "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, using layered, orderly, and implementable measures to start a systematic advancement of improving the quality of Hong Kong's capital market, expanding the offshore RMB ecosystem, and preventing financial risks.
The global asset allocation pattern is changing, and the market is paying more and more attention to diversifying the volatility risks caused by a single market and a single currency. As China's economic strength continues to grow, the international recognition of the RMB continues to increase, and the internationalization of the RMB has entered a new stage of development. The intertwining of multiple conditions has created a better external environment for Hong Kong to expand and strengthen its offshore RMB business.
The action plan issued by the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission this time integrates market development, interconnection, wealth management, and financial security into a unified framework. By improving the market integrity system and improving the efficiency of cross-border transaction operations, it will accelerate the transformation of Hong Kong's international financial center from its past scale advantage to quality advantage. SFC Chief Executive Leung Fengyi said that the SFC will continue to adhere to its core mission of maintaining market quality, integrity and protecting investors; it will make good use of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, to enhance risk monitoring, supervision and law enforcement capabilities, and support the steady development of Hong Kong's financial market.
The outline also sets a timetable for implementation, clarifying that the RMB counter will be included in Southbound Trading by July 2027. In line with the policy, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited actively promotes the opening of RMB counters by different issuers. Hui Ching-yu, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong SAR Government, said that with the RMB counter, it will not only be able to connect to the huge RMB capital pool in the mainland market, but also enable more mainland investors to conveniently purchase Hong Kong stocks in RMB.
The effectiveness of the system cannot be achieved without cross-agency collaboration to build a complete ecosystem. Stanley Ho, Assistant President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (hereinafter referred to as the "HKMA"), said that policies such as the significant expansion of the HKMA's RMB business capital arrangement, the optimization of Bond Connect's "Southbound Connect", and the mainland's addition of RMB clearing banks in overseas markets strongly support the internationalization of the RMB, which means that more RMB usage scenarios such as trade financing, working capital and treasury services have been added.
With the combined efforts of policies, Hong Kong is helping to steadily advance the internationalization of the RMB to a deeper level and a wider scope. As Chairman of the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission Huang Tianyou said, Hong Kong is a unique bridge between the mainland and the world. In the future, we must further consolidate and enhance this unique advantage so that Hong Kong can better serve the overall development of the country and create value for global investors and the real economy.
