Public-private collaboration holds the key to helping Hong Kong achieve its carbon neutrality goals, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said as he wrapped up his five-day trip to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The remarks came in a panel discussion at the summit on "How to Finance Decarbonisation?" against the backdrops of a global economic slowdown, high debts, as well as geopolitical risks.

Chan said the SAR was firmly and steadily progressing towards its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and that a key strategy for realising the goal was to use government incentives to drive "behavioural changes" among businesses and consumers.

He pointed to the potential of initiatives such as rolling out tax concessions for electric vehicles, having incentives for building green properties, or setting aside funds to innovate and develop sustainable hydrogen-powered transport in forging the transition to a more environmentally friendly age.

Chan said public support and trust were essential and the government would ensure that all funds earmarked for the transition were "genuinely" used for green projects.

He also highlighted the SAR's role as an international financial centre in helping to channel private capital into efforts to boost decarbonisation through the issuance of tokenised green bonds and environmental, social, governance funds, enriching the green finance ecosystem and allowing more investors to invest in green projects.

"For high-emission enterprises, such as mining companies, listing in Hong Kong not only enables them to access capital to support their development but also helps enhance their corporate governance, transparency and recognition in global markets," he said, according to a government statement.

Chan also held talks with more global leaders on his final day at the forum, including its president and chief executive, Børge Brende, as well as the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dan Katz, on global finance.

He also spoke with senior leaders from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, French insurance giant Axa and Amazon Web Services.

Before concluding his trip, Chan told national broadcaster CGTN that he was optimistic about the SAR's outlook in 2026 after having a "good year" in 2025, when the economy grew 3.2 percent and the equity market saw gains of 28 percent.

"This year's initial public offering pipeline is very strong, with over 400 quality companies waiting to be listed," he said.

"And we have observed capital flows coming in not just from the mainland but also from the US and Europe.

"For IPOs over the past year, despite the geopolitics, the cornerstone investors were still, very importantly, American and European."

Chan is scheduled to return to Hong Kong on Saturday.