The Hong Kong government should appeal to up and coming mainland technology companies to move part of their operations to the city and introduce measures to boost the market turnover of smaller listed companies, according to the chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Listed Companies (HKCLC).
The chamber floated these recommendations to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu during a recent consultation session ahead of his Policy Address on Wednesday.
“Hong Kong’s listing reforms have already attracted a lot of mainland technology and biotechnology firms to list here in recent years, while there are 200 listing candidates in the pipeline,” said Chan Ka-keung on Thursday in his first interview since becoming chairman in June.
He said that while many of these listed companies used the listing proceeds to expand their mainland or international businesses, the chamber would like to see these firms use some of the funds to set up offices or relocate some business activities to Hong Kong.
“If these mainland start-ups have more of their operations in Hong Kong, it would provide more job opportunities for locals and support the city’s economy,” said Chan, Hong Kong’s former secretary for financial services and the treasury from 2007 to 2017.
Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (HKEX) in 2018 introduced reforms allowing companies with multiple classes of voting rights and pre-revenue biotech firms to list here. That was followed by Chapter 18C in March 2023, which allows large tech companies to list even if they have made no revenue.
