Hong Kong Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises: A new batch of key enterprises will be announced on October 22, with 10 to 20 companies expected to establish a presence.

The Director-General of the Hong Kong Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), King-Shun Yam, revealed on a radio program that OASES will announce a new batch of key enterprises on October 22 and hold a signing ceremony, with an expected 10 to 20 companies establishing a presence in Hong Kong, split evenly between overseas and mainland enterprises, many of which are leading companies with market capitalizations exceeding HK$100 billion. Yam noted that multiple overseas visits by government officials for promotional purposes, combined with companies already settled in Hong Kong promoting the city through their own success stories, have made "the snowball roll bigger and bigger," with more and more overseas enterprises recognizing Hong Kong's core advantages. Many key enterprises also bring upstream and downstream companies in their supply chains to Hong Kong when they set up operations. For example, a large mainland e-commerce enterprise, in addition to acquiring a local supermarket chain and investing in properties, has also partnered with a local developer to develop the Hung Shui Kiu area and brought other partners to Hong Kong, creating a win-win situation. He hopes the ratio of overseas to mainland enterprises will continue to be maintained at one-to-one. He stated that more than 100 enterprises are currently in discussions, but emphasized that not just any company expressing interest can set up in Hong Kong. When selecting enterprises, OASES does not make decisions solely based on company size, investment amount, or the number of jobs created; the most important factor is whether the company aligns with Hong Kong's industrial policy and can help develop the industrial ecosystem and bring upstream and downstream enterprises to Hong Kong. Some cases took nearly a year of negotiations before being finalized. The authorities require settled enterprises to submit a five-year plan specifying concrete investments, jobs to be created, and the first benchmark project, so that progress can be closely monitored and resources matched. When asked whether there would be a penalty mechanism if enterprises fail to meet targets, Yam said OASES has a regular follow-up mechanism, but government subsidy schemes generally require enterprises to meet specified targets before disbursing subsidies, and there may not be a need to establish hard penalties.