Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Frederick Ma, said at the Asian Securitization Summit Thursday that like many Asian economies, Hong Kong needs to develop deeper, bigger and more robust capital markets.

Frederick Ma said that "Promoting the local bond market has been high on my agenda since I became the secretary for financial services and the treasury in July, 2002. "

Ma said that in Hong Kong, securitization is gaining momentum. The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation has been issuing mortgage-backed securities since 1999. More recently, synthetic securitization and credit card receivable securitization began to appear.

He said that the government's objective of the securitization is to facilitate further development of the local capital market. It is hoped that this transaction will serve as a stimulus for attracting more private sector and non-government entities to consider launching their own structured or plain debt products in Hong Kong and to our retail investors.

"This will help to consolidate our position as an international financial center," he said.

Last month, the government successfully completed its debut securitization, raising approximately 6 billion HK dollars (769 million US dollars) through the securitization of future revenues from the government-owned tolled tunnels and bridge. Proceeds of this project will be used for financing infrastructure projects.

He said that this is a landmark transaction for Hong Kong. It was not only the first securitization issuance by the government and the largest securitization in Hong Kong, but also other than Japan the first of its kind in Asia, being the first securitization of tolled facilities, the first securitization publicly offered to retail investors and also the largest cash securitization in the region He said while Hong Kong possesses many fundamental advantages to become a bond center, such as a sound legal system, world-classfinancial market infrastructure, efficient and transparent regulatory regimes, free flow of capital, simple and low tax, and an abundant supply of financial professionals and intermediaries, HK's equity markets have all along outperformed HK's bond markets.

Recognizing the weak link in this regard, he said that the government has done a lot, including simplifying the issuance process and offering tax incentives. The government has put forward a range of amendments to the Companies Ordinance to streamline bond issuance, he said.

Source: Xinhua