On the 26th, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Paul Chan, posted on his blog that the functions and connotations of Hong Kong as an international financial center are constantly strengthening and improving. Despite the challenges brought by the constantly changing geopolitical landscape, Hong Kong is still opening up new growth points through continuous innovation and cooperation. Chen Maobo stated that last week, Hong Kong welcomed its largest IPO listing of the year; The Hong Kong Stock Exchange also announced the launch of a joint index with the Malaysian Stock Exchange, and related ETFs will also be launched. Since the beginning of this year, Hong Kong's new stock fundraising continues to rank first in the world. As of last week, the amount of new shares raised by Hong Kong stocks has exceeded HKD 140 billion. Since March, the daily average trading volume of Hong Kong stocks has exceeded HKD 280 billion. He stated that Hong Kong is actively developing the international gold trading market. The largest gold ETF in Hong Kong that went public last week supports physical gold redemption, achieving "trading and storage in Hong Kong" and helping Hong Kong gradually build a complete gold industry chain and value chain. Chen Maobo said that Hong Kong has signed mutual recognition agreements with 20 global exchanges, facilitating dual listing of enterprises and building a broader market cooperation network. We are currently actively studying the inclusion of the Malaysian Stock Exchange in the list of "recognized securities exchanges" to create conditions for exploring new sources of capital and new listed companies. He stated that the steady improvement of the financial market, coupled with the recovery of asset markets such as residential properties, has to some extent boosted consumer confidence. The latest unemployment rate for the first quarter of this year has dropped to 3.7%, and the retail and catering industries are showing signs of improvement. Chen Maobo said that the mainland will welcome the May Day holiday, and the Immigration Department expects about 980000 mainland tourists to visit Hong Kong during this period, an increase of about 7% compared to the same period last year, which will drive the development of retail, catering, hotel and other industries. The SAR government will provide various supporting services in the hope of providing better experiences for tourists. (Looking into the New Era)