Hong Kong Industrialist Jan-Mar 2021

New Technologies Promoting Cross-Border Trading 新科技推動跨境商貿 A s an export-oriented economy, Hong Kong has a heavy reliance upon foreign trading, to which cross-border payments and corporate financing are of paramount importance. As an international financial hub, Hong Kong is always at the forefront of deploying technological breakthroughs to enhance its competitiveness. The Hong Kong Monetary Authorities (HKMA) has been collaborating with Bank of Thailand on the development of blockchain-based Central Bank Digital Currency network to improve the efficiency of cross-border payment. As HKMA revealed, banks and large corporates will soon be brought into various trials such as actual cross-border trade settlement and capital market transactions. Meanwhile, HKMA is exploring the establishment of the Commercial Data Interchange system (CDI), which allows SMEs to share their digital footprints with banks through data providers. CDI will deepen banks’ knowledge of SMEs’ finance, and help them provide SMEs with more appropriate services and accurate credit assessments. We believe many businesses will be in favour of these measures, and hopefully the HKMA can make them available very soon. In this way, the financial situations of SMEs and the efficiency of cross-border trade settlement can be tremendously improved. 香 港作為外向型經濟體，對外貿易是經濟中重要一環，地方跨境支付及企業融資方式大大影響對外 貿易的發展。幸而香港一直與時並進，不斷透過應用新科技以提升競爭力。例如，香港金融管理局 （金管局）與泰國中央銀行透過區塊鏈技術，開發「央行數碼貨幣」，以提升跨境支付效率，稍後時間更會 邀請銀行及企業試行跨境貿易結算及交易。同時，金管局亦正研究建立「商業數據通」系統，讓中小企透 過數據供應商與銀行共享企業的數碼足跡，幫助銀行更了解中小企狀況，從而協助銀行向中小企提供更 適切的服務及信用評估。我們相信有關措施將會廣受業界歡迎，故希望金管局盡快推出，以改善企業的融 資狀況及跨境貿易結算的效率。 陳祖恒 Sunny Tan 1-3/2021 | 9