Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Thursday Hong Kong's first five-year plan provides a clear framework for policymaking and investment, urging businesses to understand the government's strategies and priorities so they can "plan and invest with confidence". Speaking at a business forum, Chan highlighted two connected priorities – finance, and innovation and technology – in the plan, which was unveiled last month. "For Hong Kong, we are equally determined to turn opportunities into lasting outcomes," he said. The government's "Finance+" approach, Chan pointed out, aims to develop new growth engines, support new industries and finance Hong Kong's green transition. "Hong Kong brings together capital, innovators, enterprises and professional expertise. "We want to put these strengths to fuller use, thereby developing new growth engines, supporting new industries, helping businesses transform and expand, as well as financing the green transition. "The question is not simply how much capital we attract but what that capital makes possible." Chan noted that Hong Kong's close connection with the mainland is central to this role, helping take technologies from the laboratory to the market at scale while marrying mainland strengths with international capital and global markets. He cited strong IPO momentum in this regard, saying Hong Kong raised some HK$388 billion in the first nine months of this year, which was more than double that of a year earlier. International investors from the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are major players, while enterprises from the last two regions as well as Central Asia are exploring listing or bond-issuance opportunities. On innovation and technology, Chan said the Northern Metropolis project is more than just about land and buildings. "We are bringing education, research, talent, enterprises and industry together to create a new engine of growth," he said. He highlighted the Hetao co-operation zone as a clear example, where Hong Kong and mainland authorities are strengthening cooperation in clinical research and drug regulation, attracting international pharmaceutical companies to conduct research and set up manufacturing facilities. Edited by Aaron Tam

Massive demand for AI chips delivered record quarterly profits to South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Thursday, but shares fell as investors questioned the resilience of the global tech boom. Samsung is the world's largest maker of memory chips – components in short supply as advanced types are snapped up for use in data centres powering artificial intelligence. The company posted July-September operating profit at 107.4 trillion won (US$80.5 billion) – up more than 780 percent year-on-year. It marked the first time any technology company had reported quarterly operating profit over 100 trillion won, Samsung said. Net profit jumped more than 510 percent from last year to 75.1 trillion won, while sales reached 195.3 trillion won. The global race to build data centres to train and run chatbots, image generators and other AI tools has turbocharged the fortunes of Samsung and other chipmakers, despite concerns that the sector may be overvalued. Samsung shares fell more than five percent on Thursday morning. Investors were disappointed by a miss of market expectations for operating profit by the semiconductor division, according to Bloomberg News. The company's memory business achieved "another record-breaking quarter by managing its product mix, with a focus on AI products, amid capacity constraints," Samsung said in a statement. "Strong demand momentum for servers led to higher market prices across all applications." (AFP) Edited by Aaron Tam

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Thursday reminded the public to carefully manage interest rate risks when making property, investment or borrowing decisions, after the US Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate unchanged. The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee decided to hold the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75 to four percent, a move in line with market expectations. "Hong Kong's monetary and financial markets have continued to operate in an orderly manner," the HKMA said in a statement. It noted that with the persistent interest rate differential between the Hong Kong and US dollars, trade activities may cause the local currency to gradually ease. However, the HKMA said the outlook for the Hong Kong dollar and interbank rates could vary depending on factors such as market risk appetite for carry trades and the supply-demand conditions for the local currency, which are in turn influenced by capital market activities and other seasonal factors. It added that US interest rate adjustments remain subject to considerable uncertainty and will depend on developments in inflation, the labour market and other economic data, which may in turn affect the interest rate environment in Hong Kong. The HKMA said it will continue to closely monitor market developments to maintain monetary and financial stability. Edited by Aaron Tam

Asian shares gave up earlier gains on Thursday as AI-related earnings announcements prompted wildly mixed responses, raising the stakes for Amazon and Intel results due later in the day. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened down six points, or 0.03 percent, at 23,088. The tech index slipped 19 points, or 0.5 percent, to 3,834 while the China Enterprises Index inched down six points, or 0.08 percent, to 7,797. Up north, the Shanghai Composite Index opened down four points, or 0.13 percent, at 3,676. The Shenzhen Component Index fell 94 points, or 0.82 percent, to 11,379 while the ChiNext Index lost 38 points, or 1.46 percent, to open at 2,596. In Tokyo, the Nikkei opened 172 points, or 0.27 percent, at 64,126 but regained ground to be 11 points off the pace at one stage before noon. In Seoul, the Kospi inched up four points, or 0.08 percent, to open at 6,017, gained ground before slipping into loss territory to the tune of 182 points at one stage before lunch. The opening losses for Asian markets came as a hefty cash burn at Alphabet sent its shares 10 percent lower in after-hours trading, wiping nearly US$400 billion off its market value. That drove Nasdaq futures one percent lower. Microsoft, by contrast, beat forecasts with better-than-expected cash flows that lifted its shares by three percent. Overnight, the US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady as widely expected, but two committee members voted for a hike. Chairman Kevin Warsh struck a more confident note on the inflation outlook during his press conference, sparking a rally in Treasuries. However, the bigger test came from earnings. Samsung Electronics said on Thursday its operating profit rose nearly ninefold to a record high in the third quarter, driven by robust demand for AI chips. Its shares still slid more than four percent. "The reason why Alphabet is down is because their traditional revenue service of ad generation has been impacted by the very thing which is the AI boom. So it's causing a mix of results for Google," said Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments at VanEck. "Both of Alphabet and Microsoft confirmed that the AI revenue generation is still solid. We saw that through the data centre growth, the cloud services. So that part of the business is solid, which then flows into a lot of the information coming out of Asia with SK Hynix yesterday as well in Korea." (Reuters & Xinhua) Edited by Aaron Tam