Hong Kong's Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, spoke at an APEC finance ministers meeting seminar on trade, supply-chain finance, and green and sustainable finance. He called for regional cooperation, saying no economy can secure prosperity alone, and highlighted Hong Kong's efforts to support SMEs and accelerate green finance development. The most concrete part is Hong Kong's push to build an international carbon market. Hui pointed to collaboration between HKEX's Core Climate platform and the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency on cross-boundary carbon trading. That could give Hong Kong a real role in linking China's carbon market with international buyers, but the details are still thin. The speech is mostly broad framing, with no new numbers or commitments. Still, it signals that Hong Kong wants to be seen as a serious carbon trading hub, not just a financial center. Anyone watching Asia's carbon market development should keep an eye on whether Core Climate actually scales beyond its current volume.
