Liang Hanjing: The essence of Hong Kong's continuous increase in Web3 is to promote future economic transformation

Jiemian News reporter: Zhang Xilong Sima Linwei

Web3.0 is developing into a new track in the global financial field. From New York, London to Singapore and Hong Kong, the world's major financial centers have successively become entrants.

Since 2022, Hong Kong has made frequent moves in the Web3 field. In October last year, the Hong Kong government issued the "Policy Declaration on the Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong" and added new elements such as Web3 and Metaverse to Hong Kong Fintech Week; earlier this year, the Hong Kong government proposed in the "Budget" to promote Hong Kong Web 3 industry development, and established the Web3.0 Association in April.

"From 2022 to the present, Hong Kong's development in the Web3 field has formed three waves." On June 10, Liang Hanjing, director of finance, finance and financial technology of the Hong Kong Investment Promotion Agency, said when attending the interface news Web3 closed-door meeting.

He pointed out that the first wave will be in the fourth quarter of 2022. Local people are very excited, but people in other regions are still very skeptical—is this a temporary or sustainable policy? The second wave began at the beginning of this year, when Chinese from all over the world, including mainland investors, came to Hong Kong to deal with regulators. "The most surprising thing is the third wave. Now many foreigners are also coming to Hong Kong." Liang Hanjing mentioned that in the past one or two months, there have been exchanges between American practitioners or institution founders and regulatory authorities.

Currently, the development of Web3 is in the ascendant, and common applications include cryptocurrencies, decentralized exchanges, DID authentication, decentralized financial services (DeFi), blockchain games, and NFT. Liang Hanjing said that from the perspective of the Hong Kong government, asset tokenization is a business opportunity at the level of hundreds of trillions. The blockchain trading platform can speed up the flow of traffic and reduce the listing threshold. It is a very huge market.

In the past half a year, Hong Kong has also made three landmark breakthroughs in Web3: in mid-December last year, CSOP launched the first batch of virtual asset ETFs in Asia - CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF (3066.HK), CSOP Ethereum currency futures ETF (3068.HK); in mid-February this year, the Hong Kong government successfully issued the world's first tokenized green bond (environmental bond), with a scale of 800 million Hong Kong dollars; and the launch of virtual assets on June 1 this year license application.

**In Liang Hanjing's view, Hong Kong has two advantages in developing Web3 at this stage. ****The first is universities.**According to CoinDesk’s ranking of universities in the blockchain field, Hong Kong Polytechnic University will rank first in 2022; among the top 20 universities in the world, Hong Kong has 4 universities shortlisted. ** In addition, Hong Kong's well-developed auction market. ** In 2020, Hong Kong will overtake London to become the world's second largest auction market. "The major auction houses in Hong Kong, such as Phillips and Sotheby's, will maintain positive growth in 2022 when the market as a whole goes down. Yes." Liang Hanjing mentioned that this also provides a good opportunity for investors to diversify their investments and deploy alternative assets.

But this does not mean that the development of Web3 in Hong Kong will be smooth sailing. Under the influence of the epidemic for several years, Hong Kong is facing the challenge of talent and capital spillover. According to figures from the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong, the working population in Hong Kong has decreased by about 190,000 in the past three years.

A mainland practitioner also pointed out that the current extension policy for Web3 inbound talents is still unclear, and many practitioners can only stay in Hong Kong for 7 days. He described the popularity of Web3 in Hong Kong as "it was very hot in April, but now it has dropped to a bit hot, not very hot, showing a curve change."

Liang Hanjing believes that this problem cannot be solved simply by giving a visa. "The highest point is how to build an ecosystem and also consider supporting facilities. I am also communicating with some real estate developers, such as finding offices with cheaper rent. "In addition, if talents in the Web3 industry form a family, they will have other needs for life or education. "Now we are also in contact with partners in private enterprises, so that the introduced talents can have better services after they come to Hong Kong." In terms of the introduction of enterprises, Hong Kong Leading enterprises are also absorbed through the introduction of the Office of Key Market Enterprises (OASES) policy.

He revealed that ** has already gone through the process of launching Web3 related policies in the Legislative Council, "it will take about a year."** He himself has frequently communicated with regulators in major markets around the world since March, and went to San Francisco successively , London, Toronto, Tokyo, New York, etc., "The conclusion is that what Hong Kong is doing now, there is a high probability that other markets will do it, and they have reached a consensus."

**For Hong Kong, the proposal to build a Web3 center or a virtual asset center is not essentially about the securitization of virtual product assets, but about the future economic and social transformation of Hong Kong. **Previously, the Hong Kong government allocated 62 billion Hong Kong dollars to invest in tracks that contribute to Hong Kong's future economy. The four tracks that have been identified cover financial technology (including virtual assets, Web3), biotechnology, artificial intelligence big data, high-end manufacturing.

Liang Hanjing mentioned that this does not mean that there are only four tracks, and there may be more in the future: "Hong Kong is actively promoting the development of IT-based economy. As stated by the Hong Kong government, the most important thing is to use IT to innovate and help development of the real economy."