Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan Mo-po, reiterated his support for blockchain technology, which he described as the next “groundbreaking growth” wave in the digital technology industry, in a recent blog post. Hong Kong continues to demonstrate its commitment to the growth of Web3 technology by enacting crypto-friendly legislation and establishing a Web3 task force, taking important steps in this field.
According to Chan, Blockchain Can Be Used in Many Areas
In a statement he made on August 27th, Chan wrote that emerging sectors such as NFTs, GameFi, play-to-earn games, and immersive entertainment would lead the next generation of digital entertainment within the Web3 ecosystem.
“The fundamental blockchain technology of Web3 can be applied in many areas such as finance, trade, supply chain management, and even daily life, with its features of disintermediation, security, transparency, immutability, and low cost.”
Chan’s remarks came after his visit to a three-day blockchain-focused event called the Digital Entertainment Leaders Forum held at Cyberport in Hong Kong. Cyberport is a 25-hectare mixed-use technology and multimedia center that provides grants, funding, and office space to a wide range of companies in the technology, digital entertainment, and finance sectors. In particular, Chan mentioned that he allocated an additional $50 million from this year’s budget to Cyberport earlier this year to accelerate the development of a “strong” Web3 ecosystem.
Hong Kong’s Support for Blockchain
Chan highlighted that Cyberport currently houses more than 180 technology companies related to Web3, including newly established companies and full-fledged exchanges, with 20% of the companies coming from overseas. While China has maintained its crypto-hostile stance for about five years, Hong Kong has published new crypto-friendly regulations to position itself as a global hub for digital assets.
As part of its ongoing commitment to investing in the mega trend of Web3 development, Hong Kong has established a Web3 task force to provide recommendations for the sustainable and responsible development of the special administrative region’s sector.
On August 3rd, the local crypto exchange HashKey announced that it had successfully obtained all the licenses necessary to start offering crypto assets to retail investors and became the first exchange in Hong Kong to expand its business beyond serving institutional investors.
