Media OutReach
Enhancing Hong Kong’s strength as a global financial centre: 2026-27 Budget
Despite the complex and ever-changing external environment, Mr Chan noted that Hong Kong’s financial market had performed strongly and the city’s financial system remains robust.
In 2025, Hong Kong ranked first globally for funds raised through initial public offerings.
“We will continue to consolidate our existing strengths, tap into emerging fields, strengthen market systems and risk control and deepen financial co-operation in the Greater Bay Area,” Mr Chan said. “By doing so, we will enhance Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre on all fronts and contribute to the national strategic goal of ‘accelerating China’s development as a financial powerhouse’ “.
With Hong Kong being the world’s largest hub for offshore Renminbi (RMB) business, the Financial Secretary said the city would leverage its unique strengths and proactively align with national development strategies.
For advancing the internationalisation of the RMB, Mr Chan said Hong Kong would facilitate the wider use of RMB in activities such as trade and cross-boundary business; reduce transaction costs; enrich product offerings in the offshore RMB market; improve price discovery in the short-to-medium-term-interest-rate market; and attract high-quality issuers to increase RMB bond issuance in Hong Kong.
In 2025, the stock market delivered a stellar performance. The Hang Seng Index rose by 28 per cent over the year. The daily turnover surged by 90 per cent to a historic high of close to $250 billion (US$32 billion).
Mr Chan said the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) would continue enhancing the securities market, attracting issuers and boosting market efficiency.
“We will also introduce the next stage of reforms, including enhancing the regulatory regime for listed companies, providing specific guidelines for overseas companies seeking secondary listing in Hong Kong, offering more overseas markets as recognised exchanges, and continuing to explore with the market the provision of an over-the-counter trading platform for delisted stocks or those requiring special handling.
“The electronic bond-trading platform will also be launched in the second half of this year, thereby reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as a global fixed income and currency hub,” he said.
To attract more family offices and funds to set up in Hong Kong, Mr Chan said Hong Kong would enhance the tax regime, including expanding the scope of “fund” to cover specific funds-of-one, as well as classifying digital assets, precious metals, and specified commodities, etc. as qualifying investments eligible for tax concessions.
Regarding the development of digital assets, the Government published the second policy statement for developing Hong Kong into a global hub for digital asset innovation through the establishment of a comprehensive regulatory framework.
A bill will be introduced this year to establish licensing regimes for, among others, digital asset dealing and custodian service providers.
“We will also explore the adoption of electronic signature for bond issuance documents and the digitalisation of bearer bonds,” Mr Chan said.
To promote the application of fintech and enhance the efficiency of the asset management market, the CMU OmniClear, a market infrastructure operator established by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, will establish a digital asset platform this year. It will support the issuance and settlement of digital bonds. The platform will also be gradually extended to other digital assets and linked with other tokenisation platforms in the region, consolidating Hong Kong’s leading role in the realm of digital assets.
In order to build an international gold trading market in Hong Kong, Mr Chan said the Government would explore offering tax incentives for eligible institutions conducting gold trading and settlement in Hong Kong; assist the industry in setting up an industry-led trade association to consolidate resources, step up promotion, and foster ties with industry stakeholders from around the world; and help the industry keep abreast of the latest gold market developments, acquire relevant skills and develop a training framework.
Hashtag: #HongKong #BrandHongKong #Budget #International #Financial #Hub
https://www.brandhk.gov.hk/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/brand-hong-kong/
https://x.com/Brand_HK/
https://www.facebook.com/brandhk.isd
https://www.instagram.com/brandhongkong
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Media OutReach
4,680 young Chinese volunteers called “Little Deer” ready for Asian Beach Games
Recruited from 12 universities, including Hainan University and Hainan Normal University, as well as other local organizations, the volunteers share the common nickname “Little Deer.” The name is derived from Sanya’s nickname, “Deer City,” and is meant to reflect the volunteers’ lively, warm, and friendly spirit.
“See ya in Sanya” is both the slogan of the Asian Beach Games and the guiding principle for its volunteers. Liang Zihan, a student from Hainan Tropical Ocean University, said: “Since the launch of the volunteer recruitment drive, whether it is learning about the Games, mastering multilingual communication, or taking part in scenario-based drills and emergency exercises, I have given it my all. I hope to convey Sanya’s warmth, openness, and inclusiveness to every friend who comes from afar.”
Alongside local students, the volunteer team also includes many young people from across China brought together by the Games. Wu Yujia, a sophomore at the Hospitality Institute of Sanya, is one of them. “I want to show a warm, caring, and energetic Sanya,” she said. When asked about her future plans, she did not hesitate: “I want to stay in Sanya.” In her eyes, the city’s pleasant climate and beautiful scenery have deepened her affection for it and strengthened her commitment to volunteering.
The 6th Asian Beach Games will be held in Sanya, Hainan, from April 22 to 30, 2026. Delegations from all 45 member countries and regions of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) will take part in what is the largest and most influential beach sports event in Asia. As the first major international sporting event to be held in Hainan after the independent customs operations of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the Games are not only a celebration of Asian sport but also an important opportunity for Hainan to present an open and welcoming face to the world.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Media OutReach
SERES’ Clifford Kang Highlights AI-Enabled Smart Mobility at the 2026 World Internet Conference Asia-Pacific Summit
The summit, hosted by the World Internet Conference and organised by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, brought together global industry leaders to explore developments in digital and intelligent transformation.
Against this backdrop, Kang noted that artificial intelligence is accelerating a fundamental shift across industries, with mobility among the most significantly transformed sectors. AI is moving from merely functional to truly frictionless, becoming deeply embedded in every part of our lives and emerging as an inclusive force that enhances mobility, living and consumption experiences.
As this transformation accelerates, SERES continues to embed intelligence across its full value chain, from product development to manufacturing and user services, using continuous innovation to enhance user experience and strengthen its long-term competitiveness as a technology-driven new energy vehicle company.
A key milestone of SERES came in 2021, when SERES entered a cross-industry partnership with Huawei to launch the AITO brand, its premium new energy vehicle brand. At the time, the industry was facing a clear disconnect, where intelligent cars were not luxurious, while luxury cars were not intelligent. In response, AITO introduced the brand philosophy of “Intelligence Redefining Luxury”, positioning intelligence as the foundation of its premium mobility experience. The brand name itself, derived from “adding intelligence to auto”, reflects this core DNA.
Today, that strategy has translated into scale and adoption. AITO has built a user base of more than 880,000 active users of its smart driving assistance system, with total journeys surpassing 6.6 billion kilometres.
Clifford Kang further emphasised that a great product alone is not enough, and that company need to focus on the entire lifecycle user experience. Guided by this principle, SERES has extended intelligent technologies at scale across both manufacturing and customer service to improve every touchpoint.
In manufacturing, the SERES Super Factory, operates with more than 5,000 robots, enabling 100% automation of critical processes. AI vision inspection technology ensures strict quality control of key components, ensuring high quality standards across production.
On the customer service end, SERES has built a 24/7 cloud-based safety service system powered by AI and big data, enabling a shift from reactive support to intelligent predictive service. In 2025 alone, the system delivered approximately 250,000 proactive alerts to customers. One notable example came in July last year, when AITO M9 completed the industry’s first satellite-enabled rescue operation in a remote region of China, highlighting both the practical value and human warmth of intelligent connected technologies in real-world scenarios.
Looking ahead, Clifford Kang stated that new energy vehicles are evolving into the mobile intelligent space, requiring further robust investment in research and development. In 2025 alone, SERES invested RMB 12.5 billion in R&D, representing a 77% year-on-year increase. This investment has enabled the company to develop a suite of core technologies, including the SERES MF Platform, Super Range Extender and Intelligent Safety systems. These innovations are continuously applied across SERES’ products to enhance performance and deliver better mobility experiences for users.
“Bringing eruptive technology from the laboratory to the road requires more than one company’s efforts”, Kang said. “Open collaboration is the most efficient path forward. SERES has always embraced openness and partnership. We want to work with industry partners around the world to advance the mobility sector together. Let’s build up the future where technology has the vision to lead, the precision to excel, and the warmth to care.”
Hashtag: #SERESGroup
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Seres Group
Seres Group is one of China’s leading luxury new energy vehicle companies. Its premium brand AITO has surpassed one million cumulative users. In 2025 AITO became the best-selling Chinese luxury car brand in the domestic market. With strong capabilities in areas such as intelligent driving, SERES is bringing its vision of “Intelligence Redefining Luxury” to global markets and delivering a smarter mobility experience to more users around the world.
Media OutReach
Taicang Day in Munich: Celebrating 18 Years of Sino-German Industrial Innovation
The event featured a distinguished lineup of speakers who shared their insights on deepening cooperation. Gudrun Weidmann, Director for Internationalization at the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs; Zhai Qian, Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Germany; Chen Xiaodong, Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Commerce; Dr. Christian Scharpf, Deputy Mayor of Munich and Head of the Department of Labor and Economic Affairs, and Michaela Schenk, Chair of the Foreign Trade Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria, delivered opening remarks. The proceedings were moderated by Stefan Geiger, Chairman of the China-Western Bavaria Business and Cultural Association.

Chen Gao, Secretary of the CPC Taicang Municipal Committee, delivered a keynote address titled “Green, Innovation, and Integration: Establishing a Model for Sino-German Cooperation.” In his speech, Chen drew a poetic parallel between Munich and Taicang’s home region of Suzhou, describing both as paragons of the perfect fusion between tradition and modernity where cutting-edge technology and modern industry coexist harmoniously with rich cultural heritage.
Reflecting on 33 years of deep engagement with Germany, Chen emphasized that Taicang’s bilateral cooperation has reached a historic turning point, transitioning from merely attracting foreign capital to fostering two-way investment, and from industrial supply-chain support to the co-creation of a complete industrial ecosystem. The Secretary highlighted three flagship Taicang projects recently included in the official achievement list of the high-level Sino-German summit—the Schaeffler Humanoid Robot Digital Factory, the Sino-German Taicang Zero-Carbon Park, and the Taicang Rhine-Neckar Innovation Center. These milestones vividly demonstrate Taicang’s momentum in pivoting toward green transformation, collaborative innovation, and deep bilateral integration. Taicang’s strategy remains built on the philosophy of long-termism, with Chen reaffirming the city’s dedication to optimizing a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment while reinforcing its brand identity as a “home away from home” for German community.
Following these addresses, the event yielded several milestone agreements aimed at facilitating practical cooperation, including the official inauguration of the VDE China representative office in Taicang and the signing of a new batch of German scientific innovation projects. To further support the internationalization of local firms, the Taicang Enterprise Overseas Service Center was officially unveiled, alongside a dedicated matchmaking session for Chinese companies expanding into global markets. Furthermore, State Grid Taicang Power Supply Company presented its latest initiatives in Green Compliance and Environmental Sustainability, a presentation that received widespread acclaim for aligning industrial power solutions with international ESG standards.
Taicang’s strategic appeal is rooted in its premier location adjacent to Shanghai and its world-class infrastructure. Situated within a 30-minute commuting radius of central Shanghai, the city offers rapid access to Hongqiao Airport in 20 minutes and Pudong International Airport in just over an hour. Its maritime gateway, the Port of Taicang, features a 12.5-meter deep-water channel and ranks 8th in China and 20th globally, with an annual throughput exceeding 10 million TEUs. This logistics network supports a robust industrial ecosystem of over 5,000 enterprises, where 70% of vehicle components can be sourced locally.
Widely recognized as the “Home of German Enterprises” in China, Taicang now hosts over 560 German firms, including 60 “hidden champion” companies. This specialized cluster represents more than 10% of all German manufacturing enterprises in China. The city’s collaborative success is further evidenced by projects mentioned above in Chen Gao’s speech such as the Schaeffler Humanoid Robot Digital Factory and the Sino-German Taicang Zero-Carbon Park, and the Taicang Rhine-Neckar Innovation Center, all of which were included in the official achievement list of the German Chancellor’s visit to China.
To support its growing international community, Taicang has developed a sophisticated service ecosystem. The city’s Foreigner Service Center integrates 73 specialized services, supported by the “Hi Taicang” card which provides foreign residents with enhanced convenience in healthcare, education, and transportation. Complemented by cultural landmarks like the Rothenburg-themed street and authentic German bakeries, Taicang has created an environment where international partners can truly root themselves for long-term success.
Hashtag: #TIZ
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism10 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking8 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn

