Sun Yu: Hong Kong's banking industry will seize the opportunity to participate in the construction of a national financial powerhouse.

The banking association delegation led by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority concluded their two-day visit to Beijing today. During the visit, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Banks and Vice Chairman of BOC HONG KONG (02388), Sun Yu, summarized the trip by stating that the delegation deeply felt the central government's concern for Hong Kong's economic and social development. The national financial regulatory authorities have clearly stated that they will continue to fully support Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international financial center. In the future, the Hong Kong banking industry will seize the significant opportunities in the construction of a strong financial country, actively participate in formulating the Hong Kong five-year plan, actively support the implementation of major projects, and fully support Hong Kong in aligning with the national "15th five-year plan", better integrate into and serve the national development situation, while implementing various requirements of the national financial regulatory authorities. Sun Yu pointed out that currently, the cross-border connectivity mechanism operates smoothly, with the trading volume of the Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect increasing by over 80% in the first five months of this year. The Bond Connect and the ETF Connect also achieved record-breaking trading volumes. Hong Kong processes about 75% of global offshore RMB payments and has the largest offshore RMB fund pool in the world. With the continued opening-up of mainland China's financial sector, it is believed that the development space for the Hong Kong banking industry will further expand. Eddie Yue, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, stated that they will work together with the banking industry to seize the important development opportunities of RMB internationalization and prioritize the development of the offshore RMB market in Hong Kong. He revealed that they have been following up on projects such as offshore national debt futures and cross-border wealth management connectivity 3.0 with various ministries and will launch them as soon as the timing is right. After completing their visit to Beijing, the delegation will proceed to Hangzhou to visit innovative enterprises in the fields of artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles, high-performance general-purpose robots, etc., and introduce the unique advantages that Hong Kong offers to mainland enterprises in supporting their international expansion efforts.