The timing of the fourth edition of the Wealth for Good in Hong Kong Summit has a particular resonance amid geopolitical turbulence, which — as in all times of uncertainty — dials up a special appreciation for safe havens.
As has been widely reported, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region hosts more than 3,380 single family offices — a 25 percent increase in the past two years — and banks are scrambling for the city’s private wealth which is pegged at $1 trillion.
Policy initiatives certainly helped drive up the number of family offices in Hong Kong, with exemption for funds offered in 2019, and tax incentives for family offices introduced in May 2023. In early March, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu announced expansion of tax benefits for family offices and funds set up by multilateral organizations such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. If legislators pass a bill that the HKSAR government intends to submit within the first half of 2026, family offices and funds would become eligible for tax exemptions in areas of private credit, gold and other commodities, carbon credit, securities linked to insurance and specific digital assets.
More importantly, and crucially so in times of volatility, Hong Kong’s foreign exchange reserves exceed $430 billion — about 1.7 times the size of the city’s monetary base — which consistently buttress the city’s Linked Exchange Rate System. The Hong Kong dollar exchange rate has long been maintained within the convertibility band of 7.75 to 7.85 against the US dollar.
The Wealth for Good summit brought together 400 family office decision-makers from Asia, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Oceania and Africa. This diversity of participation is not only an endorsement of Hong Kong’s highly open economy and straightforward tax laws but also the macroeconomic and wider policy underpinnings of a system. At the same time, it is also an indication that stability is seen not only as an outcome of isolated domestic policymaking but also of systematic, cohesive responses to events in the wider world that marry local imperatives with global considerations.
Indeed, for entities looking at “diversified allocation and risk dispersion”, as Hui put it on March 18, Hong Kong’s international standing and efforts related to diversification of bases of engagement while strengthening core competencies would have been as much a draw. The maturity of any policymaking mechanism is tested not just by its ability to set internal standards but also how it navigates external relations, especially in times of crisis. The world watches carefully for knee-jerk reactions, and measured responses go a long way toward reinforcing credentials that are as dependable as they are forward-looking.
The race to the top is often described as lonely. It need not be if friends are valued. In a world roiled by conflict, it is such graces that distinguish leaders from arrivistes and Hong Kong knows that
With a conflict raging in the Middle East that is directly impacting markets, jeopardizing energy supplies and industries, Hong Kong’s regional engagement has come sharply into focus.
On March 17, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu underscored the importance of strengthening ties, saying “we'll continue our relations with the governments in the Middle East, and I think it will only add to the gains and the attractions of Hong Kong”.
As per government figures, in 2025, the Middle East as a bloc was Hong Kong’s 10th largest trading partner with bilateral trade in goods valued at HK$192.8 billion ($24.7 billion). This comprises 1.8 percent of Hong Kong’s global merchandise trade, registering an average annual growth rate of 5.8 percent in the past five years.
On March 18, responding to Legislative Council member Lau Ka-keung’s questions, Hui allayed concerns about the exposure of the local banking sector, saying some Middle East funds might flow into Hong Kong to avert risk as cooperation between Hong Kong and the Middle Eastern financial markets continued to deepen.
The next day, Alpha Lau Hai-suen, the director-general of InvestHK, was quoted as saying that a couple of Middle East banks were in the process of setting up offices in Hong Kong with the help of the government’s investment promotion agency.
At the Bloomberg Family Office Summit in the city on March 25, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po pointed to the advantages of Hong Kong maintaining close ties with the Middle East. A $1 billion joint investment fund is planned by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund; a memorandum of understanding was signed in October 2024.
As Bloomberg reported, Chan was speaking about how the government was committed to keeping up a strong supply of initial public offerings (IPO). In 2025, as per HKEX figures, nearly HK$285.8 billion was raised, propelling Hong Kong to reclaim its position as the top global IPO venue. PricewaterhouseCoopers expects that in 2026, up to HK$350 billion could be raised. Middle Eastern companies were considering listing in Hong Kong, Chan was reported as saying.
But it is more than just numbers. Bloomberg quoted Chan as saying, “Reputation, trust, and confidence of the market is central to everything”. Indeed it is. Not just IPO prowess, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development World Investment Report 2025, as foreign direct investment inflows to Hong Kong ranked third globally, behind the United States and Singapore.
The race to the top is often described as lonely. It need not be if friends are valued. In a world roiled by conflict, it is such graces that distinguish leaders from arrivistes and Hong Kong knows that.
The author is an award-winning English-language fiction writer and current-affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
