Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Friday that businesses he met on a visit to California only wanted to talk about the business environment in Hong Kong and did not raise national security matters.

Chan made a visit to San Francisco, together with delegations from Guangdong Province and Macau.

He said Hong Kong and partners in San Francisco signed three memorandums of understanding on developing carbon markets, sustainable finance, investment promotion and the nurturing of talent.

The financial chief said businesses in the United States were "curious" and "interested" in the opportunities available in Hong Kong.

"The business proposition we put to the business sector here is that the Greater Bay Area as a market is of huge size: 87 million people. This is one of the most affluent, most dynamic, economically very high vitality areas," he told reporters in San Francisco.

"Presenting tremendous opportunities for the business sector here, no matter if it is for consumer market or for extending the service or solutions onto the mainland, the exchanges that we have with them proved this proposition to be quite attractive."

Regarding national security, Chan said businesses in the United States had other concerns.

"No question has ever been raised in this respect... In fact, the concern and the interest of the business sector here is the stability of Hong Kong, the overall business environment, the impact of high interest rates on Hong Kong, and also the performance of stock market, the property market, as well as foreign business interest and investment in Hong Kong," he said.

Chan was due to arrive back in the SAR on Saturday morning.