Mainland companies can use Hong Kong as a strong jumping-off point for their push to go global, said the director general of the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, Peter Yan.

Speaking after Hong Kong Productivity Council's ForeSight 2026 forum on Wednesday, he said the city's internationally integrated environment allowed companies from the mainland that are looking to go global to build a first project here.

That first step, Yan said, allows companies to make sure their businesses are in line with international standards, for example in data privacy or engineering.

"Of course, in this process, Hong Kong will also benefit from them building this project and helping Hong Kong actually to develop our industry, especially in technology-based industries... users in Hong Kong will benefit," he said.

When asked about the trend of companies going global in 2026, Yan said one area that held great potential was life and health technology, as the SAR has a strong reputation in this aspect, with artificial intelligence potentially playing a role in global bio-farming.

"Besides using Hong Kong as a finance or fund-raising platform, there are so many other strengths that Hong Kong has that may not have been fully appreciated or [is] underutilised," he said.

"Use more of Hong Kong's strengths, and also to work with local partners to facilitate them going global, so this is the true value of Hong Kong."