Hong Kong’s Treasury Secretary Paul Chang Mopo visited Seoul, South Korea for three days, where he worked to promote a special administrative area. (SAR) Latest developments and opportunities in the local finance, trade, business and innovation sectors.
The visit is part of Hong Kong’s recent attempt to occupy its position as a hub for financial innovation, particularly in digital assets and stubcoin regulations, with South Korea as its main partner.
On a three-day visit to Seoul, South Korea, Hong Kong’s Treasury Secretary Paul Chang Mopo. Source: Hong Kong Government
The Treasury Secretary will expand the diplomatic sector to regional partners
In a letter visited by Paul Chang Mopo by the Treasury Secretary, executives said South Korean financial stakeholders and regulators have expressed a strong interest in how far Hong Kong has come in digital assets, particularly in terms of future stubcoin regulations.
Chang Mopo highlighted how the Covid-19 outbreak and the geopolitics of the tension mission have led to fewer diplomatic visits to Hong Kong and gaps in understanding the SAR situation.
Hong Kong’s financial markets and booming IPO funding efforts have once again attracted the attention of the Korean financial community. This led to an increase in trading with the city’s Korean language institutions, recording more than 1.5 trillion ($191 billion) securities transactions in the first five months of 2025, 2.8 times the previous year.
The secretary also mentioned how Hong Kong’s financial products innovations raised funds from South Korea into the stock market.
Another topic that came up during the visit was the “Leveraged Inverse Products” recently listed in Hong Kong, pinned to a large Korean technology company. The product is described as the first of its kind fixed in the company, limiting the buying and selling of related derivatives by Korean investors in Hong Kong alone, and showing the city’s product innovation capabilities.
There was also talk of Hong Kong’s role as a “super connector” with the Treasury Secretary, who highlighted how important it is to promote cooperation, particularly in financial market connections.
“This trip gave us a deeper sense of the need for smooth communication and mutual understanding, the foundation for building mutual trust and the starting point for promoting cooperation,” the secretary wrote.
Hong Kong’s commitment to “one country, two systems,” linked exchange rate systems, free capital flows, and customary legal justice system were highlighted as important advantages appealing to South Korean stakeholders.
In the future, China’s special administrative zones plan to continue to promote multi-level interactions with the various economies of the Asian region.
Hong Kong promotes more use cases for stablecoins
Hong Kong has expressed its desire to promote more use cases for stubcoin and other tokenized financial products as part of its city efforts to create a reliable, sustainable digital asset market that can solve real-world economic problems.
Treasury Secretary Paul Jang Mopo during his three-day visit to Seoul, South Korea. Source: Hong Kong Government
Over the past three years, 11 cryptocurrency exchanges have been approved by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), with more initiatives underway, according to the Director-General of Financial Services and Treasury Secretary Christopher Huy.
“Finance serves the purpose of mitigating the smooth operation of the real economy, value chain, moving goods and services, and transfer of assets and products,” Hui said last week. “I’m trying to throw more eyesight. It’s about Hong Kong (AS) being a solution provider for some real economic problems and challenges in the region and around the world.”
Because similar rules operate on the principle that similar rules should apply to similar risks, his office has put together the regulations for four “blocks” digital assets, including exchanges, stubcoin issuers, trading service providers and custodians.
Hui also said that there are plans to conduct a systematic review of Hong Kong’s laws as blockchain capabilities support a variety of financial innovations.
He said the main goal is to find ways to boost profits, especially with lower liquidity asset transactions and higher access thresholds that require appropriate legal provisions and support.