According to the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese enterprises have already invested a total of $ billion in 49 countries along the “Belt and Road” in the first ten months of this year. The commencement of operations of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is expected to bring about more Chinese capital and companies “going out” over time. Hong Kong’s deep and mature financial markets will be an ideal place for corporates to raise funds for infrastructure projects and manage investments for their ‘Belt and Road’ developments. The capital investment projects are also expected to create new opportunities for the use of RMB in trade and investment activities, giving rise to new opportunities for RMB settlement, financing and asset management in the region. To ride on these opportunities, Hong Kong has been actively pursuing measures to develop into a hub for corporate treasury centres (CTCs) as Chinese corporates and multinational companies expand their footprints and increasingly demand centralised treasury management. The HKMA has been working closely with the Government to develop a concessionary tax regime to provide a more market-friendly environment for these companies to set up their CTCs in Hong Kong, and the relevant amendment bill was introduced into the Legislative Council last week. The third trend is that market developments, both in terms of turnover and product range, have picked up momentum in the past year. There is a rapidly growing list of products provided by our banks in Hong Kong to meet their clients’ liquidity, hedging and other business needs in RMB.

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