How Hong Kong’s fintech strategy is progressing – and where growth still lags

Hong Kong has reported rapid progress during the first year of its five-year fintech strategy. According to the South China Morning Post, the city plans to increase focus on artificial intelligence and tokenisation, even as various initiatives struggle to reach commercial scale. Eddie Yue Wai-man, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, noted that tokenisation has transitioned from a sandbox environment into the real world.

In other developments, a Hong Kong beautician received a four-year prison sentence for tricking two friends into confinement and forced labour at the KK Park scam farm in Myanmar. Separately, Free Malaysia Today reports that a syndicate is believed to be using Chinese nationals as drug mules to smuggle cocaine from Malaysia to Hong Kong via flights from Penang. Malaysian authorities have detained one individual in Penang, while two others were apprehended by Hong Kong authorities.

Brief written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post, South China Morning Post - Hong Kong, Free Malaysia Today, Bangkok Post — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.