Lee: HKSAR to explore, promote using RMB to settle govt expenditure

Other measures planned to bolster the SAR's offshore renminbi business include increasing liquidity, expanding product supply, supporting the inclusion of renminbi counters under Southbound Stock Connect trading, and promoting the advantages of the city's offshore renminbi services to overseas markets.

On asset-and-wealth management, the chief executive said Hong Kong will continue to raise its asset allocation and wealth management functions by enhancing the regulatory and market infrastructure, enriching the professional services ecosystem, diversifying asset management instruments, and boosting tax regimes for funds, single family offices, as well as carried interest.

Diversifying asset management instruments is in the form of equity and bond market enhancements. In the equity market, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which runs the city's bourse, and Qianhai Equity Exchange will deepen collaboration and link up more quality mainland enterprises with the international capital market through Hong Kong's listing platform.

In the bond market segment, the SAR government will encourage more mainland institutions to invest in Hong Kong's bond market, expand the channels and trading volumes in respect of the Stock Connect, Bond Connect, Wealth Management Connect, and the Private Equity Connect, as well as establish an electronic fixed income and currency trading platform catering to local markets and renminbi internationalization.

For risk management activities, Hong Kong will deepen regulatory cooperation with the mainland and overseas markets, and fully leverage its competitive edges in the global insurance, reinsurance and capital markets to advance the synergized development of traditional insurance and non-traditional risk management tools.

"Thus, we can unleash the synergy effect of multilayered risk transfer and pooling mechanisms through insurance linked securities, captive insurers, and a marine specialty risk pool, consolidating our strategic role as a regional and global catastrophe and specialty risk management hub," Lee said.