Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia collaborate on tokens and funds

Hong Kong is increasing its monetary collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, concentrating on agreements associated to tokenization and funds infrastructure.

The Saudi Central Financial institution (SAMA) and the Hong Kong Financial Authority (HKMA) on July 26 held a bilateral assembly to strengthen the combination of economic providers between the 2 international locations.

As a part of the assembly agenda, the HKMA and the SAMA discussed initiatives equivalent to monetary infrastructure improvement, open market operations, market connectivity and sustainable improvement. The central banks additionally signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advertise joint discussions on monetary innovation.

Based on an official joint announcement, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia’s authorities additionally took the chance to share their experience in areas like tokenization, cost infrastructure and supervision applied sciences.

“There may be numerous room for cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong within the fields of economic system and commerce, sustainable improvement, finance and fintech,” HKMA chief government Eddie Yue mentioned.

SAMA governor Ayman Alsayari famous that the MoU won’t solely promote the continued improvement of the connection between Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, but additionally assist them “transfer in the direction of Sooner or later.”

Associated: Hong Kong would not go crypto without China’s approval — Animoca exec

The announcement doesn’t specify whether or not the event would come with any joint efforts associated to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), regardless of HKMA recently allowing retail investors to trade crypto. Then again, the federal government of Saudi Arabia hasn’t been vocal on any plans to advertise crypto lately, only warning that Bitcoin is “not acknowledged by authorized entities” within the nation in 2019.

The HKMA didn’t instantly reply to Cointelegraph’s request for remark.

Hong Kong is already collaborating in a number of inter-jurisdictional tokenization initiatives. In mid-June, Financial institution of China’s funding financial institution subsidiary BOCI issued a $28 million tokenized security in Hong Kong, minted on the Ethereum blockchain. The undertaking deployed Goldman Sachs’ tokenization protocol GS DAP and money tokens representing claims on the Hong Kong greenback.

Journal: Asia Express: China expands CBDC’s tentacles, Malaysia is HK’s new crypto rival