The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region plans to enact a mechanism to promote the development of corporate treasury centers (CTCs) to meet market demand, according to the city’s treasury chief.

When companies decide to set up corporate treasury centers locally, they need to know whether they can benefit from the SAR government’s tax concessions, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said on Saturday.

“By having a pre-approval mechanism, we can assure them they need to before deciding to establish corporate treasury centers here. We see this as conducive to having more such facilities in Hong Kong,” he said.

The SAR government said on Tuesday it’ll revamp its tax concession policies, including broadening the scope of interest-rate cuts and strengthening the city’s competitiveness as a hub for multinational corporate treasury centers.

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Unveiling the plan to foster the growth of CTCs at the Corporate Treasury Centre Forum on Tuesday, Hui said the goal is to get more multinational corporations to launch such centers in Hong Kong and help existing ones scale up operations to fully leverage the city’s comprehensive financial ecosystem.

Hui said after attending a radio program on Saturday the overall plan covers four key areas that can be summarized into the four “Ts” – tax revamp, tax agreements, targeted promotion, and talent and dialogue with the market.

“For tax revamp, one measure we aim to introduce is to have a pre-approval mechanism,” he said.

On the growth of corporate treasury centers, the secretary said it would take time to materialize when a company decides to, or not to, set up a corporate treasury center.

“What we’re trying to do is to create a rather high-level framework and action plan to allow us to follow up with the details and exact taxation rules, as well as other enhancement measures that would draw more such centers to Hong Kong.”

Concerning tax agreements, Hui cited the latest Comprehensive Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement network with Cyprus – the 58th such pact signed by the HKSAR.

“Going forward, basically, our strategy and actions will be in line with the market trend in a sense we’ve to follow where our clients are,” he said.

Many of the Chinese mainland companies or international companies going global through Hong Kong are eyeing various countries, including those involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, he noted.

“So this is exactly the area we’ll focus on, among others, in order to develop a broader network for such treaties, and enable such companies to take advantage of lower taxation, not just in Hong Kong, but also in those countries we have agreements with.”