Hong Kong is about to move towards the 'FinTech 3.0 era', integrating technology into daily life, and shaping an influential and resilient financial ecosystem based on trust, transparency, and intelligence, "said the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Yu Wai man, at the recently held Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025. The flagship event of the fintech industry, Hong Kong Fintech Week 2025, jointly organized by the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau, Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, and Invest Hong Kong, marks its 10th anniversary this year. The five-day event showcases the innovative achievements of Hong Kong's fintech and explores the future development direction of fintech in Hong Kong. As a well-established international financial center, how can Hong Kong maintain abundant development momentum? As the highlight of this event, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has announced its "FinTech 2030" development strategy, committed to building Hong Kong into a robust, resilient, and forward-looking international fintech hub. Fintech 2030 focuses on four key areas, including building a new generation of data and payment infrastructure, supporting the comprehensive application of artificial intelligence in the industry, strengthening business and technological resilience, and promoting financial tokenization, covering over 40 specific projects. Yu Weiwen stated in his opening speech that "Fintech 2030" presents a strategic framework that is interconnected and mutually driven. Among them, data is the lifeline of the digital economy, artificial intelligence is the engine, resilience is the safety net, and tokenization is the channel. These elements will work together to build a smarter, more inclusive, more efficient, and safer financial ecosystem for Hong Kong. In recent years, Hong Kong has actively developed innovative technology and laid a solid foundation in the field of financial technology. In September of this year, Hong Kong ranked third overall and first in Asia in the Global Financial Center Index, which also rated Hong Kong as the world's number one fintech city. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam stated at the event that there are currently over 1200 fintech companies in Hong Kong, an increase of 10% compared to last year; It is expected that by 2032, the total revenue of Hong Kong's fintech industry will exceed 600 billion US dollars. At present, the Hong Kong SAR government is taking a series of measures to encourage technological innovation in the financial sector. Li Jiachao stated that the SAR government plans to relax restrictions to encourage more investors to enter the fintech field, and is also exploring tokenization in conventional finance, while applying regulatory sandboxes to promote innovation and prudent risk management. Hong Kong is accelerating innovation and technological transformation, with a focus on key areas such as artificial intelligence, life and health sciences, and new energy, with the goal of helping emerging industries achieve scale development and prosperity. Artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies will become the main focus of Hong Kong's financial technology in the future. During a forum speech, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr. Hui Cheng yu, stated that approximately 75% of financial institutions in Hong Kong have already adopted or experimented with generative AI, with the aim of increasing the proportion to over 87% within the next 3 to 5 years. He also stated that he is promoting seamless cross-border payments between Hong Kong and mainland China, further strengthening the credit system and convenience of cross-border payments in the Greater Bay Area. Xu Zhengyu stated that the Hong Kong SAR government has taken many leading measures in the blockchain field, such as promoting tokenization of bond issuance. He said that many companies have a large amount of idle funds available for investment every day. Under the existing banking system, there may be a time gap between the funds being in place and the profits being obtained, but through blockchain technology, seamless investment of enterprise funds can be achieved. The SAR government will also promote the further development of the virtual asset market. The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Leung Fung yee, stated that the commission will issue two important guidelines focusing on two main directions: first, to assist Hong Kong licensed virtual asset trading platforms in connecting with global liquidity, and second, to achieve comprehensive opening up of virtual assets to professional investors. Specific measures include allowing currently regulated mainstream virtual asset trading platforms to share global order books with associated overseas platforms. Seizing the opportunity, Hong Kong's development of financial technology cannot be separated from the firm support of the country for the construction of Hong Kong as an international financial center. At the recent International Financial Leaders Investment Summit held in Hong Kong, many policy makers and financial institution executives from around the world expressed high confidence in this. The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Paul Chan, mentioned in his speech at the summit that the "15th Five Year Plan" proposes to accelerate high-level technological self-reliance and expand high-level opening-up, which will help enhance Hong Kong's role as a platform for two-way trade, investment, and technological cooperation. He believes that global investors have a strong recognition of China's technological capabilities, and their investment sentiment tends to be optimistic, believing that it will continue to attract funds. Deep cooperation with mainland cities is another strong driving force for the development of financial technology in Hong Kong. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Shenzhen Local Financial Authority recently jointly released the "Action Plan for Building a Global Financial Technology Center in Hong Kong and Shenzhen (2025-2027)", jointly building a global financial technology center. The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Special Administrative Region Government, Mr. Hui Cheng yu, stated that this action plan combines Hong Kong's leading advantages in the field of financial technology with Shenzhen's strengths in industrial finance, proposing a number of key measures covering digital finance, technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, and pension finance, to further expand and deepen financial technology cooperation between the two places. Liang Haiming, a Hong Kong economist and director of the Silk Road Smart Valley Research Institute, believes that this plan will not only help deepen the synergy between the financial technology fields of the two regions, but also promote the high-quality development of financial technology in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong has formed a close cooperative relationship with mainland cities in the process of jointly building the Greater Bay Area, achieving a win-win situation. (New Society)