Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Friday said overseas firms were still keen on the mainland market and on Hong Kong's position as a gateway to that, a day after US President Donald Trump said a further 10 percent levies on China would be going ahead.

Chan was commenting on Friday during an RTHK radio phone-in programme on his 2025-26 budget that he unveiled on Wednesday.

"We try to reinforce the relationships and trading relationships with developed economies, US, Europe, because for them, in our contact with them, many of their businesses are still very interested in the mainland market, and Hong Kong will be the natural landing platform for them, using this platform to access the mainland market and to expand in the region," said Chan.

He stressed the importance of Hong Kong re-aligning itself as a high value-added supply chain management centre, as well as opening up new capital markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Chan's budget on Wednesday announced cuts to thousands of civil service jobs and a boost in spending in artificial intelligence as it seeks to tackle a deficit of HK$87 billion.

One caller, Ng, noted that a number of projects that were issued grants under the Innovation and Technology Fund were related to medical and healthcare, yet the government focused on AI and new industrialisation in his speech.

He asked: "Is it because the government has evaluated these [healthcare] projects? They have granted the subsidies and they are useless?"

Chan said the government would continue to invest heavily in medical and healthcare, and continue to give grants to universities but would shift the focus to the private sector and industry-led research.

"The Lok Ma Chau Loop between the border of Hong Kong and Shenzhen will be a major area for these companies to be located. And also we think perhaps it would be wiser not just using government's money, but also using market resources. That is why we put up a scheme on a matching basis to co-invest with general partners, which are fund managers in these areas," said Chan.

The finance minister also stressed how technology could take away some of the burden of civil servants to ensure public services are not affected, as the administration gradually reduces its headcount.

"We have set aside resources and provided training to help our various [departments] to use technology tools to enhance their work efficiency and also take the opportunity to streamline, to review their operational model and procedures, to see how this could be further rationalised and optimised."

Another caller, Steven, expressed disappointment that the non-means-tested one-off student grant of HK$2,500 would not be continued, and asked whether the government cared about the city's birthrate and providing support to parents.

Chan said the budget allocation for education continued to exceed HK$100 billion a year, which he described as "a very substantial investment."

He went on to say that the Education Bureau considered that student grant, being non-means-tested, was not targeted to help those in need.