Good afternoon, everyone.
The last few days have left Hong Kong humming with energy for Hong Kong Green Week – around 60 events held, and over 100 partners comparing notes, all drawn together by a single conviction: that finance and technology can be a force for a greener future. Today, the week reaches its culmination.
This is already the grand finale of Hong Kong Green Week – the 2026 Green Fintech Symposium.
Our theme, “Smarter Finance for a Greener Transition”, captures a simple but important idea. Achieving a net‑zero and climate‑resilient economy is not just about mobilising more capital; it is about deploying capital more intelligently. We need finance that is sharply-targeted to ensure capital flows to high-impact decarbonisation projects, guard against the risks of greenwashing, and respond to the complexities of real economy transition in an agile manner.
This is precisely where green fintech gives Hong Kong its decisive edge.
Last year, the HKMA unveiled our vision in Fintech 2030 – a forward looking fintech strategy to transform Hong Kong as a robust, resilient, and future-ready fintech hub. Since then, we have begun translating the vision into reality. The Fintech Promotion Blueprint, released a few months ago, gives us a clear roadmap for advancing fintech responsibly across the banking sector. It lays the foundation for accelerating our shift towards a more data‑driven, A.I.‑enabled, and secure infrastructure that will underpin the next era of smarter finance.
A key building block of this strategy is the Commercial Data Interchange, or CDI. As a next‑generation financial data infrastructure, CDI allows banks to access the commercial data of enterprises – especially SMEs – through a standardised, secure interface. CDI, so far, has already facilitated over 108,000 loan applications and reviews, unlocking nearly HK$90 billion in estimated credits for SMEs. Building on this foundation, our multi‑year Project CargoX leverages cargo and trade data to further digitalise and expand trade finance. Through CargoX, our vision is to enhance SMEs’ access to financing and expedite their transformation of business model and supply chains.
You may ask, what does it have to do with “green”? While CDI is not specifically designed for green finance, it could provide an important enabling catalyst. Robust and interoperable data infrastructure can help financial institutions trace supply chains, measure emissions, and verify the carbon performance of projects over time. And it is transparent and reliable data that allows capital for green and sustainable investments to be deployed and scaled with far greater precision and confidence.
In the climate and sustainability space, stronger data and digital infrastructure is being complemented by vibrant, and market‑led innovation. Today’s Symposium showcases a host of home‑grown solutions from Hong Kong – from carbon trading platforms to automated-solutions for monitoring and verification, and A.I.‑driven models that support better climate risk assessment. The innovators at our showcasing booths are home‑grown teams who pair deep technical capability with a strong understanding of finance and sustainability. They are building solutions to help banks and corporates in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and beyond pursue sustainability outcomes that are smarter, quicker and more precisely targeted. This is a testament not only to the strength of Hong Kong’s ecosystem and depth of talent, but also to Hong Kong’s unique role as a springboard into the Chinese Mainland and the wider Asian market.
But technology and data, on their own, are not enough. To channel and scale capital to genuinely green and sustainable activities, the market needs clarity on what “green”, “sustainable”, and “transition” actually mean.
That is why the next phase of the Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, published earlier this week, marks such an important milestone. The Taxonomy gives the market a common language and a practical classification tool. By offering robust, science‑based definitions of what constitutes as “green”, “transition”, and “adaptation”, it eases concerns about greenwashing and transition-washing and helps direct capital to projects that make a real difference. Since the launch of the Taxonomy, we have already seen how the tool supports more informed decision‑making and allows market participants deploy capital with greater precision.
So today, Hong Kong brings three interlocking strengths to the table: a strong digital infrastructure, a robust taxonomy, and a vibrant ecosystem of innovators and financial institutions. Our task ahead is to connect these pieces and move from pilot to scale. As an international financial centre with deep capital roots and close connectivity to both global and Chinese Mainland markets, Hong Kong is uniquely placed to turn these strengths into concrete outcomes. We are not only a hub for cross‑border capital, but a proving ground where new green fintech solutions can be developed, tested, and then scaled to the wider region and beyond.
As you take part in today’s discussions, I encourage you to use this forum not only as a place to share ideas, but as a launchpad for real partnerships. If we bring our strengths in finance, technology and policy together, Hong Kong can help ensure that every dollar of capital works harder and smarter for the climate transition.
Thank you for your dedication throughout Hong Kong Green Week. I wish you a fruitful and inspiring Symposium.