Financial Secretary Paul Chan revealed that Hong Kong will resume Islamic finance soon. During his stay in Riyadh, the delegation led by Chan signed 10 memorandum of understanding. Speaking to reporters on Thursday ahead of concluding his trip, the finance minister said he realised Saudi Arabia can offer more opportunities to the mainland, Hong Kong, and Asian markets, as well as more funds. Chan also unveiled the government's plan to explore Islamic finance in the near future. "Previously, we thought that market demand for Islamic finance wasn't that high. But after talking to them, we think we'll resume Islamic finance soon," he said. "They have to do a lot of infrastructure work. During our exchanges with them, we discussed Islamic finance, as well as using funds raised from issuing green and sustainable bonds in the Hong Kong bond market to support them." The finance minister also revealed that the Future Investment Initiative, or FII Institute, is eager to stage the FII Priority Summit in Hong Kong again. He pointed out that Saudi Arabia is very interested in research and development of technologies, and welcomes SAR companies to set up shop in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia found that it is worth taking reference to Hong Kong's way of nurturing start-ups and talent, according to Chan. "They think that our way of nurturing talent through two parks and offering funds to support them, or even the tailor-made listing regime that allows start-ups without profits and income to be listed, is very worth taking reference to." "As for nurturing talent, their insurance authority recently went to Hong Kong for an exchange with the local authority. They want to send someone to Hong Kong on secondment, so as to introduce some of our practice to the country. I think this is a good thing." Meanwhile, Hong Kong's third quarter GDP growth of 1.8 percent, year-on-year, was slower than the previous two quarters. But Chan said there's no need to adjust the full-year forecast. "During the announcement of the Financial Budget at the beginning of this year, we expected the economy to grow by 2.5 to 3.5 percent. I think that the growth could still be within this range. Therefore there's no need to adjust it," he said. He added that the government will remain cautious and optimistic. Chan will return to Hong Kong on Friday afternoon.
