Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants: Fully support the "Hong Kong Corporate Finance Center Development Action Plan" to enhance Hong Kong's tax competitiveness.

The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants fully supports the government's announcement of the "Development Action Plan for Hong Kong as an International Business and Financial Center". The Institute believes that the Action Plan has formulated targeted and forward-looking strategies that will help enhance Hong Kong's tax competitiveness as the preferred hub for Cross-Border Corporate Treasury Centers (CTCs). The Institute believes that the Action Plan will promote the development of regional headquarters economy and continue to make Hong Kong the preferred dual platform for both multinational and mainland Chinese companies. The Institute is pleased that the government has strengthened Hong Kong's tax competitiveness as a hub for corporate treasury centers through the introduction of the Action Plan. This initiative fulfills the commitments made in the Chief Executive's Policy Address, which the Institute also welcomed in its proposals for the Tax Policy and Budget for 2026-27. The "4T" framework proposed in the Action Plan, including Tax Revamp, the continuous expansion of comprehensive network of double taxation avoidance agreements, Targeted Promotion, Talent and dialogue, will help Hong Kong to find feasible ways to cope with the current complex international tax environment, especially in response to the challenges posed by the BEPS 2.0 framework for international tax reform introduced by the OECD in 2025. The Institute believes that the implementation of various measures under the Action Plan, including expanding Hong Kong's comprehensive network of double taxation avoidance agreements and nurturing talent in the field of Corporate Treasury Centers (CTC), will effectively attract global multinational companies to concentrate their fund management, asset allocation, and risk management businesses in Hong Kong. President of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Mr. Johnson Lo, stated that by enhancing the tax incentive system and introducing a pre-approval mechanism, the government has provided important tax certainty and administrative flexibility to businesses, which will help attract more large multinational companies to Hong Kong. In particular, it will encourage Chinese mainland companies actively expanding into the "Belt and Road" and other overseas markets to utilize Hong Kong as their strategic base for global expansion. The accounting profession plays an important role in strategic consulting and maintaining corporate treasury management, and fully supports the introduction of the Action Plan.