Hong Kong has done it again! It has knocked Switzerland off its perch for the top spot as the world’s largest cross-border wealth hub. But the irony is that Hong Kong has no borders while Switzerland has four with neighbouring countries: Germany, France, Italy and Austria..
The boost to Hong Kong’s international financial status came from an initial public offering (IPO) bonanza and capital inflows from China’s mainland, which shares a boundary with Hong Kong. Countries share borders with neighbouring countries but technically share boundaries with counties or provenances within the country. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China with a high degree of autonomy. For example, both have different currencies, legal systems etc.
That very fine distinction was overlooked by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) when analysing cross-border wealth distribution. BCG is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963. It is one of the "Big Three" (also known as "MBB", representing the first initials of world's three largest management consulting firms by revenue) along with McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company.
The BCG report revealed that Hong Kong's cross-border wealth management assets reached US$2.95 trillion — a 10.7 per cent year-on-year surge. That figure edged past Switzerland's US$2.94 trillion by about US$10 billion, making Hong Kong the world's largest cross-border wealth management center for the first time.
BCG projects that cross-border wealth managed in Hong Kong will grow at roughly 9 per cent annually between 2025 and 2030, compared to only about 6 per cent for Switzerland. Bloomberg goes further. By 2030, the gap in assets under management between the two centers is forecast to widen to about US$600 billion. Today's slim lead is not a finish line — it is the opening lap of a far larger structural shift, said Bloomberg, indicating that the financial future for Hong Kong appears robust.
Last year, Hong Kong reclaimed the global IPO crown for the first time since 2019, with 114 listings raising US$37.2 billion.
The city retained pole position as the world’s largest IPO market by proceeds in the first quarter of this year. A total of 37 companies raised about US$13.26 billion on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s (HKEX) main board in the three months to March 31, representing a 453 per cent increase from a year earlier.
About 500 listing candidates, most of which were mainland-based, are now waiting to raise funds in the city, up from 300 at the end of last year, according to HKEX.
The BCG report received wide international coverage including the Financial Times, Reuters, Associated Press and Canada’s National Post all noting that the surge in capital flow into Hong Kong helped topple Switzerland’s long-standing status as the traditional safe haven.
Across this international media coverage, one competitive advantage of Hong Kong was repeatedly emphasized — its connectivity function under "One Country, Two Systems." The Associated Press highlighted how Hong Kong's close ties with the mainland market have driven its wealth management business. Reuters likewise noted that Hong Kong "is cementing its role as China's gateway to global markets."
The current trade mission to Central Asia by a 60-member strong delegation from the mainland and Hong Kong led by Chief Executive John Lee is indicative of the aggressive nature the city is taking to maintain its ranking as the world’s top financial hub. Besides businessmen and women in the delegation drumming up partnerships between Central and East Asia, there is a bevy of financiers with deep pockets willing to invest in new proposals. Representatives of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is also there promoting the bourse’s advantages for primary and secondary listings. This and future trade missions will surely broaden Hong Kong’s global client base while consolidating its role as China's gateway.
Mark Pinkstone
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Chief Executive (CE) John Lee Ka-chiu’s 60-strong trade delegation from Hong Kong and the mainland to Central Asia next month will lift the near isolated states to the world markets.
Hong Kong will be the super- connector, offering its internationally renowned financial services as a fundraising platform to ease the flow of trade between central and east Asia and to the rest of the world. And it will be a super value-added delegation with the CE leading a delegation that, for the first time, combines Hong Kong’s finance, legal, and logistics firms with mainland energy, mining, and pharma companies. This Hong Kong + Mainland model is likely be a forerunner to future trade missions actively packaging cross-border deals, providing project structuring, risk management, and post-investment services.
The target destinations are Kazakhstan (bordering China at its north) and Uzbekistan (at its south) but were recognised in 2013 as being an integral part of the cog in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The two countries are both Hong Kong's key trading partners in Central Asia, taking up 59.7 per cent and 13.2 per cent of Hong Kong's total exports respectively to the area.
Hong Kong’s cooperation with Central Asia gathered pace last week when Hong Kong and Kazakhstan officially established a comprehensive framework for cross-border criminal justice, signing three major bilateral agreements on Friday that govern the extradition of fugitives, mutual legal assistance in criminal investigations, and the transfer of prisoners.
China’s deepening ties with Kazakhstan have provided a strong incentive for Hong Kong to extend its reach to Central Asia, especially after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Kazakhstan last year, which elevated bilateral relations to new heights. During that visit Xi promoted high-quality belt and road cooperation, pledged 1.5 billion yuan (US$209 million) towards livelihood and development projects in the region and signed a landmark permanent friendship pact.
In 2024, Kazakhstan attracted US$6.2 billion in investment from the mainland, taking up 52 per cent of what Beijing poured into Central Asia, while Uzbekistan drew US$2.2 billion.
According to statistics from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Hong Kong, meanwhile, exported US$313.4 million worth of goods – mostly telecommunications equipment and computers – to Central Asia last year, while imports from the region totalled just US$10.3 million. In 2025, more than 35.5 per cent of Hong Kong’s exports to the region were telecommunications equipment, and 16.4 per cent were computers, while apparatus and semiconductors made up 6.1 and 5.7 per cent respectively.
However, local economists have warned that as Central Asian economies were still developing, it might take time for Hong Kong to realise significant economic gains.
Kazakhstan is also leveraging Hong Kong's financial advantages to develop fintech and digital assets. Hong Kong is expected to focus on aviation, by introducing direct passenger and cargo flights to the region, as well as offering its professional financial services to companies who seek to raise funds for their ventures.
Hong Kong could also assist Central Asian businesses by providing regional logistics management and distribution hub services, advising them on international trade compliance and quality control, while connecting firms to clients in the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia.
Kazakhstan’s consul general in Hong Kong, Bauyrzhan Dosmanbetov, has been a driving force behind the Hong Kong/China mission to the Central Asian countries. In an interview with the local press, he said the lack of direct flights was currently the only missing piece in an otherwise rapidly growing puzzle of cooperation, pledging to make flight resumption a key priority for the consulate. He added that his government is in talks with major carriers over direct flights between the country and Hong Kong.
Kazakhstan aims to deepen its financial services cooperation with Hong Kong, viewing it as an ideal fundraising hub to access renminbi capital through bond issuances.
Dosmanbetov said Kazakhstan was also very interested in offshore renminbi trading, given it had a lot of projects with mainland China and needed the currency.
He added that Hong Kong, which had abundant capital, served as an ideal fundraising hub. “Hong Kong is the only financial and stock exchange hub within six hours flight to our country. It is the closest one,” he said.
He said there was also a notable 30 to 40 per cent increase in inquiries from Hong Kong logistics firms looking to make use of the Middle Corridor to mitigate risks. The Middle Corridor, previously known in the days of Marco Polo as the Silk Road, is a multimodal logistics route that connects China and Europe via Kazakhstan in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the South Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and Turkey.
From the perspective of Uzbekistan, the BRI could help open the corridor to the Persian Gulf, enabling expansion of commercial and trade routes for the country. Exporting Uzbek goods to more regions is a highly attractive incentive for Uzbekistan. At the First Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing May 2017 both presidents, Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan and Xi, spoke positively of future collaboration in BRI advancement. During those meetings, the two countries signed 115 deals worth more than $23 billion on enhancing their cooperation in electrical power, oil production, chemicals, architecture, textiles, pharmaceutical engineering, transportation, infrastructure and agriculture. In 2019 Uzbekistan established a new government group in charge of aligning their own country's development plan with China's BRI ambitions. China is Uzbekistan's largest trade partner (both in imports and exports) and has more than 1,500 Chinese businesses within its territory.
In preparation for this large trade mission, the sherpas must already be in the Central Asian countries firming up deals, ready for signatures from the heads of industry and government officials thus laying the groundwork for the future as a hedge against the uncertainties arising from the Israeli/Palestine/Iran/Ukraine/Russian conflicts.
