Hong Kong Monetary Authority: Will continue to strengthen cooperation with AMRO and the International Monetary Fund to promote regional financial integration and stability.

The "ASEAN+3 (ASEAN plus China, Japan, and South Korea) Economic Cooperation and Financial Stability Forum" was held in Hong Kong for the first time. Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, stated that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will continue to strengthen cooperation with the "ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO)" and the Bank for International Settlements to promote regional financial integration and stability. Eddie Yue mentioned that despite the increasingly challenging external environment, the economic growth of the ASEAN+3 countries has remained resilient in the face of tariff shocks, and the regional financial markets have remained stable amidst recent global volatility, with currencies mostly steady. He pointed out that the region is undergoing structural changes such as aging populations, digitization, and the rise of artificial intelligence, which bring both opportunities and challenges, and emphasized the importance of deepening regional cooperation. Eddie Yue highlighted the need for continued efforts to promote regional payment integration and local currency settlement within the region. He mentioned that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Faster Payment System has been connected with Thailand and Mainland China in recent years, and collaborations with other central banks to establish cross-border wholesale central bank digital currency platforms are ongoing, with hopes to cooperate with ASEAN+3 members in the future to advance relevant measures. Eddie Yue also mentioned that Hong Kong has introduced several measures to enhance trade financing efficiency, such as the CargoX project which promotes digital trade financing based on the "Commercial Data Interchange" and the Ensemble project which tokenizes trade documents using innovative technologies. He believes that as more jurisdictions join these initiatives, the benefits they bring will multiply.