Hong Kong Immigration focuses on Hong Kong economic trends: The Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council (HKFDC) held a meeting last Friday (September 13). The Mainland Opportunities Committee under its umbrella drafted a research report on the development of the offshore Renminbi center, which was formally submitted to and accepted by the board. The more than 20 recommendations include relaxing the current daily limit of 20,000 Renminbi that Hong Kong residents can exchange per person.
The Renminbi research report is the first to be completed among the four reports drafted by the Mainland Opportunities Committee. Other research reports concerning Qianhai, CEPA, and securities brokerage business are still in progress.
Apple Daily reported on Monday that the research report accepted by the HKFDC contains over 20 directional recommendations. These include developing Renminbi-denominated commodity futures contracts through the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), expanding the scale of Hong Kong's Renminbi liquidity pool and cross-border flow arrangements, and increasing the daily limit of 20,000 Renminbi that Hong Kong residents can exchange at the onshore rate (CNY) via clearing banks. The report stated that Hong Kong should comprehensively explore Renminbi products and services, such as Renminbi-denominated insurance policies, asset management, and securities products.
The report indicated that Laura Cha, the Chairman of the Council, will submit the report to the government later. Provided there are no major revisions and with the government's consent, she does not rule out the possibility of making it public. The next step is to communicate with relevant mainland institutions to promote the content of the recommendations.
Sources stated that last Friday's meeting lasted about two and a half hours. Despite the intense speculation surrounding the financial pilot openings in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, no details have been released thus far; therefore, the HKFDC meeting did not engage in extensive discussion regarding the situation of the Shanghai-Hong Kong offshore Renminbi market. The Council believes that local Renminbi offshore market development must maintain a sense of crisis, as Hong Kong, acting as the largest offshore Renminbi center, continues to maintain its competitiveness and advantages.