Hong Kong, Shenzhen ‘to deepen’ ties in finance and AI to build world-class fintech hub Hong Kong and Shenzhen can work closely to empower finance with artificial intelligence, delegates said on Thursday at the China Conference: Greater Bay Area, an event hosted by the South China Morning Post. Joseph Chan Ho-lim, undersecretary for Financial Services and the Treasury in the Hong Kong government, said Hong Kong and Shenzhen were seeking deeper cooperation between finance and technology. Chan said at the event in Qianhai, a bonded zone in Shenzhen, that Hong Kong, as a “superconnector” and “super value adder”, could leverage its strength in financial services to support Shenzhen in technology and industrial finance, with the shared ambition of building “a world-class fintech hub”. Hong Kong was “actively deepening ties in fintech with our main counterparts, particularly Shenzhen”, he added. “We are also working closely with Qianhai to advance deeper integration between technology and finance across both cities,” Chan said. To do so, Hong Kong would encourage Shenzhen financial institutions to set up fintech subsidiaries in Hong Kong and support Shenzhen technology firms to leverage Hong Kong’s capital market, he added. Chan also said Hong Kong and the mainland were mutually recognising fintech talent, with the first bridging programme for dual qualifications launched in the fourth quarter of 2025 in collaboration with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University via bridging courses and assessments. Xiao Ting, the chairman and executive director at the Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), said AI and finance could empower each other, and the bank had tagged AI as a key area to offer financial support while aligning with Beijing’s AI-plus strategy. In Hong Kong, the bank’s outstanding loans to tech firms increased by a “three-digit rate” in 2025, and it led a consortium to lend US$100 million to a leading AI company. Xiao did not name the client. The China conference is designed to bring together leaders and industry experts to discuss opportunities and challenges within the Greater Bay Area, a region covering Hong Kong and Macau as well as Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Tammy Tam, publisher of the South China Morning Post, said in her welcome note that the Greater Bay Area also showcased “the best of collaboration”, with each city contributing its unique strengths. Hong Kong fulfilled its role as the international financial centre and a superconnector between mainland China and the world, and Shenzhen offered technological innovation capacity, including robotics, Tam said. She added that 2026 would be important for the region thanks to the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit later this year. To navigate a world full of unprecedented challenges and transformations from geopolitical tensions to AI, trusted sources of information and dependable networks would become more critical than ever, she said. Qu Hongbin, the chief economic adviser to the Shenzhen Qianhai Authority , said on the sidelines that the authority was working to expand the cross-border data corridor, which covers sectors like banking and finance. The enhanced corridor would be ready in the next one to two years, he added. He also said that over 300,000 Hong Kong residents were expected to head to Shenzhen to seek medical services this year. Chow Chung-yan, newly appointed editor-in-chief of the Post, delivered the closing speech at the event, promoting the newspaper’s key products and recalling his experience as the Post’s first reporter based in Shenzhen 22 years ago, when the mainland city was “in crisis”. Shenzhen and Hong Kong could together become “the most competitive region in the world”, Chow said. The Post staged its China conference in Qianhai for the first time. Around 400 delegates from government and industry are attending the event, including Wen Ping, deputy director general of the Qianhai Authority. https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3339943/hong-kong-and-shenzhen-forge-close-ties-finance-and-ai-build-world-class-fintech-hub (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post