Hong Kong and Slovenia Discuss Double Taxation Agreement to Boost Bilateral Trade and Investment.

2025-09-25 12:03 Last Updated At：13:18

SFST proceeds to Poland after concluding visit to Slovenia

The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Slovenia, Mr Klemen Boštjančič, again in the morning of September 24 (Ljubljana time) before proceeding to Poland for the second leg of his European visit. He said at the meeting that the visit was very fruitful, especially regarding the news that the Slovenian Government and National Assembly are deliberating on the decision to prioritise the Comprehensive Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement (CDTA) negotiations with Hong Kong.

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SFST proceeds to Poland after concluding visit to Slovenia Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

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SFST proceeds to Poland after concluding visit to Slovenia Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

"Both the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Slovenian governments are keen to pursue a CDTA early to reduce unnecessary tax obstacles for encouraging bilateral trade and investment. The signing of the CDTA will foster closer economic ties between Hong Kong and Slovenia, and I believe that it will be welcomed by the business communities in both places.

"Hong Kong and Slovenia have a lot in common, both being small yet significant economically and strategically with big ambitions. We both offer a diverse economy with a stable investment environment, underpinned by openness and efficiency. That makes us each perfect gateways for each other, enabling European enterprises to enter Asian and Mainland markets through Hong Kong, and Slovenia a place through which Mainland companies can access Europe," he added.

Mr Hui also highlighted to Mr Boštjančič that Hong Kong is consolidating its status as an international asset and wealth management centre. The total assets under management in Hong Kong grew by 13 per cent year on year, reaching EUR3.81 trillion by the end of 2024. Riding on the particularly stellar performance in the private banking and private wealth management sector, more facilitation measures have been announced by the Chief Executive in his 2025 Policy Address to make Hong Kong even more attractive to family offices and global high-net-worth individuals. These measures include enriching the investment options under the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme, enhancing the preferential tax regimes for funds, single family offices and carried interest, as well as expanding the mutual access between capital markets of the Mainland and Hong Kong.

He also met with the State Secretary responsible for Taxes, Customs Duties and Other Charges and for Improving the Efficiency of Public Spending of Slovenia, Ms Katja Božič, to discuss the next steps in the process of commencing the negotiations on the CDTA.

In the afternoon, Mr Hui started his itinerary in Warsaw, Poland, where he visited Lenovo Technology and met with its General Manager at Lenovo Poland, Mr Wojciech Zaskorski, and other senior members of the company to learn more about the macroeconomic situation and digitalisation of Poland, as well as the needs of Mainland companies in their expansion overseas.

Mr Hui stated that Hong Kong is striving to be the perfect platform to support Mainland companies going global. A Task Force on Supporting Mainland Enterprises in Going Global will be set up to encourage Mainland enterprises to utilise Hong Kong in expanding their businesses overseas. Hong Kong will facilitate the establishment in the city of more corporate treasury centres by Mainland companies and regional headquarters by the banking sector, particularly by Mainland banks. Hong Kong will also promote the development of carbon audit services to assist enterprises going global to meet international requirements and standards on green trade in respect of carbon emission reduction.

He reiterated that Hong Kong has an extensive pool of professionals to serve Mainland companies on their journey towards global market expansion. Using the accounting sector as an example, he said that the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants has compiled the List of accounting firms helping Mainland enterprises go global to help Mainland companies to tackle thechallenges of venturing abroad. As at mid-August, the list includes 83 Hong Kong accounting firms.

Mr Hui will visit the Warsaw Stock Exchange on September 25 (Warsaw time) and meet with Polish government officials and members of the business sector.

Financial Secretary Emphasizes Innovation, Inclusivity, and AI in CUHK EMBA Conference Speech

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference

Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the CUHK EMBA Annual Conference today (May 9):

Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)), Professor Lin Zhou (Dean, CUHK Business School), Macy (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Ms Macy Chan), Michael (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Mr Michael Chan), CUHK EMBA alumni and students, business leaders, distinguished guests and friends,

Good evening.

Addressing a room full of Executive MBA students and graduates is both an honour and a privilege. There is a particular kind of ambition in this room — one that is not content with success alone, but driven to understand it more deeply, in the belief that better ideas lead to greater impact.

That kind of commitment — to learning, to growth, to asking harder questions — is precisely what today's conversation is about.

The theme of this conference, which focuses on innovation and agile leadership, could not be more timely. Most of us here have lived through the Internet age and the smartphone revolution, which made communication faster and more seamless than anyone had imagined.

Today, the rise of AI places us at a more fundamental tipping point. Technology is not merely changing the answers — it is redefining the questions themselves.

Consider what is already within reach. An AI assistant can learn your preferences, curate a personalised shortlist, and simply ask for your confirmation. We should even ask whether the smartphone and the search engine will remain our primary gateways to the digital world, or whether something altogether new is already taking shape.

To draw an analogy, the power of technology does not lie in drawing the old map with greater precision. It lies in revealing how much of that map remains uncharted — and in showing us that entirely new maps, with new co-ordinates, are being drawn.

This redefinition is unfolding across three dimensions simultaneously.

First, the redefinition of products. Products are no longer discrete, standalone objects. A smart car is a vehicle, but also a mobile platform for data. An insurance policy can be a contract, but equally a dynamic reflection of health data. Innovation today is born from cross-sector convergence and continuous evolution.

Second, the redefinition of services. Services are no longer delivered solely by enterprises. They emerge from collaborative networks of people and AI. But the more profound shift is in what customers now expect. In the past, good service meant reaching the right person quickly. Today, customers expect a solution that anticipates their needs before articulating them. This requires a new architecture of service delivery: human and machine, with AI handling the scale, the speed, and the personalisation that no human team alone could sustain.

Third, and most importantly, the redefinition of business models. In the past, we sought optimal solutions within established frameworks — when demand rose, we expanded capacity; when service needs grew, we opened more branches. Technology invites us to break out of those frameworks entirely. Intelligent manufacturing means that "economies of scale" is no longer the only answer; flexible supply chains have made customised, on-demand production the new normal.

These three redefinitions are opening a commercial frontier unlike anything we have seen before. But if the benefits of technology accrue only to a small circle, its power remains fundamentally constrained. This brings me to the second message I want to leave with you today: inclusivity.

Inclusivity is not charity. Yet it is the smartest business strategy available. The unmet needs of the broader public represent the largest and most underserved market opportunity in existence. When you make quality healthcare, education and financial services accessible and affordable to ordinary residents, you are not serving a group in need of handouts — you are unlocking a vast market that traditional business models have consistently overlooked.

Hong Kong has a distinctive role to play here. We can be a co-architect of standards, a hub for capital, and a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment — from clinical validation of smart healthcare, to green technology financing, to regulatory sandboxes for fintech. Our contribution draws not only on institutional strengths and international networks, but on our genuine commitment to broad-based participation.

Yet inclusive products and services are only the first step. The deeper dimension is empowerment.

History reminds us that the dividends of technological revolution need to be actively guided to reach the many. In the age of steam, and again in the Internet era, early gains concentrated among capital owners and top-tier talent. But today we have the opportunity to write a different story. AI, as an amplifier of human capability, is already enabling what was previously unimaginable: a solo entrepreneur, with the right tools and the right vision, can build a unicorn.

In other words, the unit of competitive advantage is shifting — from the size of your team to the skill with which you orchestrate your tools.

Our mission should be to make that shift available to everyone. To turn individual readiness into collective prosperity, and to ensure that the productivity gains of AI flow broadly across the society.

This is precisely why, in this year's Budget, I placed such emphasis on the "AI Training for All" initiative.

We are not trying to turn everyone into an engineer. We are ensuring that workers, managers, SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) owners, and ordinary residents become capable collaborators with AI: people who can access it, use it effectively, and put it to work as their assistant.

That may sound ambitious, but consider this: if AI can one day be as intuitive as the smartphone, then mass adoption is not difficult to imagine at all. Just as computers once migrated from specialist facilities into offices and homes, AI will find its way into everyone's daily work and life.

For business leaders, it may be tempting to think of AI as "digital employee" that can replace existing workers. But think of a different framing: equipping your workforce with powerful digital assistants can achieve productivity gains, while also freeing your people to do what humans do best — create, imagine and innovate.

Companies that take those extra steps, and think those extra moves ahead, will find that an empowered workforce is also a more innovative one.

All in all, the power of technology must ultimately be measured by its contribution to inclusive growth. And inclusive growth, in the end, depends on, yes, commercial acumen — but also empathy, compassion, and the conviction that a rising tide should lift all boats. I can see that those qualities live in this room.

I will close with this thought. Someone once joked that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. With AI, let us never fall into the same trap — in our race to price every efficiency gain, let us not lose sight of the deeper value we are trying to create: a society where the fruits of innovation are broadly shared, and where technology lifts not just the fortunate few, but everyone willing to reach for it.

So here is my ask: let us grow the pie together. And make sure we cut it well.

Thank you very much.

Hong Kong and Slovenia Discuss Double Taxation Agreement to Boost Bilateral Trade and Investment.

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