Short-term stock market volatility -- caused by long-term United States bond yields reaching a 24-year peak and fueling global economic concerns -- will not derail trends in international asset allocation and supply chain restructuring, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his weekly blog on Sunday.

The average daily turnover in Hong Kong’s stock market rose 6.4 percent year-on-year to HK$272.9 billion ($34.8 billion) in the first nine months of this year, while initial public offerings also maintained momentum, with 116 companies listing in the city and raising over HK$388 billion during the same period -- more than doubled year-on-year and surpassing the total for 2025.

Amid these robust developments, Hong Kong is strengthening its ties with emerging markets. Chan attended the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Sept 28 and 29.

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The financial chief said cooperation between the special administrative region, the Middle East and the Global South is accelerating. Beyond two-way flows of capital and talent, this collaboration is expanding into innovation and technology projects, industrial collaboration, and deeper exchanges of institutional governance experience.

Middle East economies are actively pursuing economic diversification, focusing on infrastructure, artificial intelligence, digitalization and healthcare -- areas that closely align with the SAR’s innovation and technology strategy, he said.

“What they need is not just investment, but project and industrial collaboration, knowledge and experience in institutional capacity building, professional services, and trusted partners.”

Many developing economies, Chan said, have a strong demand for digital infrastructure, and successful implementation requires comprehensive planning and execution capabilities across the entire project life cycle alongside financial backing, while Hong Kong’s experience offers valuable reference points for other economies across the Global South.

For example, representatives of Central Asian countries expressed a strong desire to draw on Hong Kong’s experience to develop a common-law-based international financial center, study the listing regulations for real estate investment trusts, and welcome Hong Kong banks to set up operations in their markets.

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“Cooperation between the HKSAR, the Middle East and the Global South is deepening and gaining real substance,” Chan said, citing plans by major asset management institutions in the Middle East to set up offices in Hong Kong, the development of cross-listing exchange-traded products between the two markets, and joint projects in energy storage, data centers, e-commerce logistics, and aviation.

These concrete initiatives demonstrate how Hong Kong leverages its “financial-plus” strategy to connect with the real economy, advance international cooperation, and fulfill its dual role as a “super-connector” and “super value-adder” to support economic growth in other markets for mutual success, he said.

Hong Kong will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation finance ministers’ meeting for the first time later this month. In addition, the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit and the Asian Financial Forum will also be held in the SAR in the coming months.

READ MORE: Chan discusses deepening economic, financial ties with Qatar

On tourism, Chan noted that more than 732,000 Chinese mainland visitors arrived in the city during the first three days of the National Day “Golden Week" -- an 8.4-percent year-on-year increase.

The Immigration Department estimates that total mainland visitor arrivals will reach about 1.29 million during the holiday period, with daily average arrivals up by over five percent year-on-year.

Visitor arrivals from Europe and the Americas have also shown notable growth this year.

Contact the writer at akirawang@chinadailyhk.com