HONG KONG: Paul Chan, financial secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, said on Sunday that Hong Kong's cooperation with the Middle East and the Global South is deepening and making substantive progress, with such collaboration evolving from two-way capital and personnel flows towards broader cooperation on innovation, technology and industrial projects, as well as deeper exchanges of experience in institutional development.
Chan wrote in his blog that in the first nine months of 2026, average daily stock market turnover reached 272.9 billion Hong Kong dollars (about US$34.77 billion), up 6.4 per cent year on year. The IPO market was equally active, with 116 companies listing in Hong Kong and raising more than 388 billion Hong Kong dollars, more than double the amount from the same period last year and surpassing the total amount in 2025. However, with US long-term bond yields hitting 24-year highs, growing concerns over the global economic outlook have recently weighed on local market sentiment.
Despite these short-term fluctuations, the trend of global asset and supply chain realignment continues, Chan said. Summing up his visit to Doha the previous week for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank annual meeting, he noted that wide-ranging exchanges with global political and business leaders showed that Hong Kong's cooperation with the Middle East and the Global South is deepening and making real progress.
Middle Eastern economies have been actively pushing for economic diversification, Chan said, highlighting a clear rise in Middle Eastern capital joining Hong Kong IPOs over the past year. Facing shifts in the geopolitical and economic landscape, businesses in the Middle East are also looking more closely at investments in warehousing and logistics, an area where Hong Kong has rich experience and stands out as a partner they are keen to work with.
He said that in an increasingly complex environment, Hong Kong's institutional advantages under "one country, two systems", together with its international connectivity, transparency and compatibility, continue to make the city a preferred choice for trade and investment partners worldwide.
