The government would like to see more mainland bonds issued and listed in Hong Kong, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang said yesterday.
As of the end of last month, more than 20 mainland enterprises had issued and listed their bonds in Hong Kong, raising about US$8.5 billion, Mr Ma said at the Asian Bond conference yesterday.
'I hope more and more mainland enterprises can make use of our bond market to raise capital from Hong Kong and international investors,' he said.
Over the past 10 years, the amount of Hong Kong dollar debt outstanding on the local market had risen more than 300 per cent, Mr Ma said, and the government had spearheaded major reforms in recent years to encourage even more issuers to the market.
'Given our fundamental strengths, including free and open financial markets with free flow of capital, a large international investor base, and the rule of law ... we consider our bond market very well-positioned to be developed into Asia's bond centre,' he said.
The Asian bond market had grown substantially since the Asian financial crisis, with outstanding local currency bonds in Asia excluding Japan up by 167 per cent since 1996, while the sum raised on bond markets as a percentage of gross domestic product had increased from 24 per cent to 44.1 per cent.
