Hong Kong is starting a program next year to give residency to people who invest HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) in the territory as it steps up efforts to revive its status as a financial center and bolster revenue.
The plan, scheduled to start in the middle of next year, includes a mandatory HK$3 million investment into a portfolio run by Hong Kong Investment Corp to support local technology and innovation. Other eligible assets include stocks, debt securities and funds. Industrial and commercial real estate are capped at HK$10 million. Residential real estate is excluded.
The move is expected to bring in HK$120 billion annually, Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui (許正宇) said on Tuesday.
Photo: Bloomberg
He said he estimates that 4,000 people could participate per year.
It is the latest move to attract talent and capital as the territory is facing fierce competition from peers including Singapore. In addition to population outflow amid political clampdowns, Hong Kong is also seeing dwindling revenue from land sales due to a slump in the property market.
Known as the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, the plan was announced during Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee’s (李家超) policy address in October.
The scheme was previously implemented in 2003 to stimulate economic growth, before being halted in 2015. The relaunch underscores how the years-long COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic slowdown are prompting the Hong Kong government to seek new avenues of growth.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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