China News Service, Hong Kong, February 28 (Reporter Han Xingtong) Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po of the Hong Kong SAR government said on the 28th that the digital economy has become a new driving force for economic development.

He believes that Hong Kong has a solid foundation and rich conditions to develop international data transactions.

  Chan Mo-po delivered the 2024-2025 budget at the Legislative Council of the SAR on the same day and made the above remarks when talking about measures related to the digital economy.

The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Paul Chan, released a new budget on the 28th.

Photo by China News Service reporter Chen Yongnuo

  Chen Maobo believes that data, as a new key production factor, can be combined with different industrial fields to empower enterprises to improve efficiency and competitiveness and create new business opportunities.

As global digital transformation accelerates, an efficient data ecosystem has become one of the considerations for many companies choosing to settle in Hong Kong.

With its unique advantages under "one country, two systems" and its international characteristics, Hong Kong has a solid foundation and rich conditions to develop international data transactions, from data supply and demand to application scenarios.

  In terms of digital technology driving new financial business models, Paul Chan pointed out that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority completed the first phase of the "Digital Hong Kong Dollar" pilot program in October last year, studying local retail use cases in multiple areas, such as programmable payments, offline payments, Tokenized deposits and more.

Phase 2 trials are about to begin to further investigate new use cases.

Another key project, the "Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Cross-Border Network" has also made progress. The first phase of services is expected to be launched this year. It will become one of the first projects in the world to use multiple central bank digital currencies to settle cross-border transactions for enterprises.

  In addition, he said that the "digital RMB" will expand the pilot scope in Hong Kong, and citizens will be able to easily open and use digital RMB wallets and add value through "FPS" to further improve cross-border payment efficiency and user experience.

  As for promoting the cross-border flow of data, Paul Chan said that the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Cyberspace Administration of China launched the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Mainland, Hong Kong) Standard Contract for Cross-border Flow of Personal Information" in December last year. Try to arrange.

In the first phase, the banking, credit reporting and medical industries were invited to participate, and the response from the industry was very positive.

  Chan Mo-po said that the SAR government will refer to the implementation results of the first phase of the trial and gradually expand the facilitation measures, so that various industries in the two places can use more mobile cross-border data to provide more cross-border services that are convenient for citizens and enterprises.

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