Press release
SFST continues Korea visit programme
Friday, June 17, 2005
The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, talked about Hong Kong as an international financial centre and a financial platform for investing in Mainland enterprises with over 150 leading figures of the Korean financial services community at a luncheon in Seoul today (June 17).
The luncheon, organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Tokyo) and supported by the Federation of Korean Industries, is one of the major events of Mr Ma's first official visit to Korea. The aim of the visit is to update the Korean community on the latest developments in Hong Kong and to promote further co-operation between Korea and Hong Kong in financial services.
Before addressing the luncheon, Mr Ma visited the Korea Exchange and met with the Exchange's President, Dr Lee Young-tak. They exchanged views on the latest developments and prospects of the Korean and Hong Kong stock markets, and Hong Kong as a launching platform for Chinese and Korean enterprises. Mr Ma was briefed on Korea's experience of using information technology to make transactions -- electronic transactions are now on a full scale. He was also shown around the public information hall and museum hall.
After the visit to the Korea Exchange, Mr Ma attended a roundtable discussion on corporate governance and shared with participants Hong Kong's initiatives to further enhance the territory's corporate governance. The roundtable discussion was jointly organised by the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Tokyo). Established in 2002 as an independent, non-profit making organisation, the KCGS strives to help improve corporate governance in Korea, thereby contributing to the development of a healthy financial market in the country.
In the afternoon, Mr Ma visited the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), which is responsible for the supervision, examination, investigation and enforcement of financial institutions in Korea. Mr Ma updated the Vice Chairman of the FSS, Mr Yang Cheon-sik, on the development of Hong Kong's financial market. They also exchanged views on, among other things, the development of financial infrastructure in Hong Kong and Korea.