Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan raised his 2025 economic growth forecast to 3.2% on Sunday, saying the city would bolster its role as a financial center, innovation hub and trade center to maintain the momentum.
In February, Chan had forecast growth of between 2% and 3%.
Hong Kong, the world's biggest venue for initial public offerings this year, will lure more listings from companies in areas such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East and will actively promote internationalization of China's yuan currency, Chan said in a blog post.
The city will also focus on developing artificial intelligence and biotech to lead the global race in technology and will strengthen its role as a trade hub by helping more Chinese companies expand overseas, Reuters quoted him as saying.
"Looking into next year, Hong Kong's economy is expected to keep the good trend of growth," Chan said. "Finance, tech innovation and trade will be Hong Kong's key engines of growth as the city actively embraces China's development strategy."
Hong Kong has one of the world's best-performing stock markets this year, with the Hang Seng Index up 30%.
Resilient exports, brisk fixed-asset investment and recovering consumption have helped Hong Kong's growth beat forecast, Chan said.
To bolster its status as a financial center, Hong Kong will strengthen the competitiveness of its stock market and develop areas including bonds, money market, fintech, commodities and gold trading, he said.
In terms of innovation, Hong Kong will develop AI into a "core industry,” as the technology will define economies' competitiveness and reshape the global economic landscape, he said.
The city is also establishing a center for cross-border supply chain management and trade finance, to better help Chinese companies expand offshore, Chan said.
