Hong Kong aims to launch southbound Bond Connect in 2021: finance secretary

HONG KONG -- Paul Chan, the financial secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, said Wednesday that Hong Kong aims to launch the southbound trading of Bond Connect this year.

While delivering the annual budget in the Legislative Council, Chan said the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the People's Bank of China have set up a working group to drive the initiative. "We target to expand the Bond Connect to cover both southbound and northbound trading."

Launched in 2017, Bond Connect links the mainland and Hong Kong markets, granting overseas investors easier access to the enormous market of the Chinese mainland. If southbound trading is launched, mainland investors will be offered a new channel to participate in bond markets of Hong Kong and overseas.

The implementation of southbound trading will further facilitate the mainland investors to make diversified asset allocation and present enormous opportunities for Hong Kong's financial industry, Chan said.

Hong Kong's bond market ranks the third in Asia, excluding Japan, in terms of total amount of bond issuance.