Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Sunday said he expects more strategic enterprises to set up operations in Hong Kong, with nearly 50 such businesses already signing agreements with the government.

Writing in his weekly blog, Chan noted the government had just signed agreements with a second batch of strategic enterprises.

“Together with the first batch of enterprises introduced last year, there will be nearly 50 companies, investing more than HK$40 billion in Hong Kong. Over 13,000 jobs will be created, most of them research and management positions,” he said.

The finance minister said one-fifth of these strategic enterprises came from Europe and the United States.

“In the future, we will continue to actively ‘go out’ and proactively contact more frontier technology companies in different regions. It is expected that the number of enterprises introduced will continue to increase,” he said.

Chan also noted that as of February, InvestHK had assisted 58 family offices in setting up or expanding their businesses in Hong Kong, and more than 100 others have expressed interest in establishing themselves in the SAR.

About 2,700 family offices were operating in Hong Kong as of the end of 2023, with nearly 900 boasting wealth exceeding US$100 million each, he added.

Separately, Chan also said the implementation of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance had further solidified the city’s national security safeguards and allowed the government to concentrate its efforts on economic development and improving people’s livelihoods.