The Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2024 kicks off in Beijing on October 18. Photo: Courtesy of Organizing Committee of Financial Street Forum

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) vows to ramp up efforts to optimize and expand the financial market connectivity between the Chinese mainland and HKSAR, John Lee Ka-chiu, chief executive of the HKSAR, said at the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2024 in Beijing on Sunday.

This year marks the 10th anniversary since China launched the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect in 2014 to let investors on the mainland and Hong Kong trade selected stocks on each other's exchanges, subject to daily and aggregate quotas. A similar link between Shenzhen and Hong Kong was launched two years later in 2016.

As of September, the total northbound transactions of Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect exceeded 21 trillion yuan ($2.95 trillion), while southbound transactions exceeded HK$6 trillion ($771 billion), according to Lee.

HKSAR will continue to optimize Stock Connect, the landmark mutual market access program connecting Hong Kong and mainland equity markets, and work to attract more mainland and international companies to conduct IPOs in Hong Kong, and support the two-way opening and development of the mainland capital market toward the world, according to Lee.

Lee also outlined various measures to strengthen the SAR's status as an international financial center and enhance its role in the country's opening-up to the world. These include further solidifying the SAR's position as an international wealth and risk management hub, comprehensively improving the coordinated development of finance, shipping, and trade, and reinforcing the growth of green finance.

Also, during the forum, Lee reiterated that the development of Hong Kong cannot be separated from that of the country, and the country will always be the strongest backing for HKSAR.

Hong Kong's financial status is both a global endowment and a result of the overall economic development of the mainland, Li Xiaobin, a Hong Kong studies expert at Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times. 

Li noted that the support from the mainland for Hong Kong for remaining a global financial hub comes from policy support, along with the vast market and stable economic output, and the nation's continuous opening-up to the outside world.

In the Global Financial Centres Index 36 Report published in September, Hong Kong ranked third globally, moving up one place from the March issue of the index this year. Hong Kong was also ranked first in the Asia-Pacific region. Its overall rating increased by eight points, the largest improvement among the top five financial centers, according to a press release from the government of HKSAR.

The city has also seen significant improvements in various financial sectors, including investment management, insurance, banking, and professional services, with investment management ranking first.

The SAR government endeavors to deepen financial mutual access between the mainland and Hong Kong so as to further strengthen Hong Kong's role in connecting the mainland and international capital markets, according to the press release.

Speaking at the forum on Sunday, Laurence Li Lu-jen, chairman of Hong Kong's Financial Services Development Council, emphasized Hong Kong's key role in the internationalization of the yuan. He noted that as the world's largest offshore yuan center, the SAR will contribute to the country's goal of becoming a major financial power while reinforcing the city's position as one of the top three global financial centers.