Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced on 22 February the Hong Kong 2023-24 Budget that revealed its plan to implement the Pillar Two Global Minimum Tax from 2025 and the overarching blueprint to boost the city's recovery momentum in the post-COVID era.

This came as the FT reported today (23 February) that Hong Kong will host an invitation only meeting for some of the world's richest family offices next month, as the city competes with Singapore to attract business.

The Wealth for Good in Hong Kong event in late March will target representatives of some of the world's richest families, the FT said citing three people with knowledge of the situation.

The gathering would be aimed at the biggest family funds in the Middle East and China, and a smaller number from the US and Europe. 

The government anticipates that the setting of a 15% minimum corporate tax rate in 2025 as part of an OECD-led agreement to overhaul global tax rules will generate tax revenue of $15bn per year for the Government. 

Chan said: "Hong Kong will implement the global minimum effective tax rate in accordance with international consensus so as to safeguard our taxing rights and maintain the competitiveness of our tax regime." 

Hong Kong will also implement a domestic top-up tax.

This was the first budget of the current-term government and also the first presented since Hong Kong's emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic and resumption of quarantine-free travel with the Chinese Mainland and the world.