By SI Linwei
The Hong Kong Web 3.0 Association was established Tuesday. John Lee, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), and senior officials of the Beijing Central Liaison Office in Hong Kong attended the inauguration ceremony.
The Association was initiated by China Mobile, China Merchants Group, Huawei and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and is composed of fintech professionals, businesses and legislators. The founding 40 members include China Unicom and Tencent Cloud. There are no cryptocurrency companies on the list.
“The new licensing system we have set up for virtual asset service providers will be implemented in June,” said Lee. “Providing a certain degree of market recognition for virtual asset exchanges, ensuring a stable and orderly development of the market, and safeguarding the interests of investors.”
Former chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Norman Chan Tak-Lam was appointed as the president of the Association.
The SAR government has been vigorously promoting Web 3.0. In his first policy address, Lee stated that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority was preparing for the launch of digital Hong Kong dollars.
In February, the SAR government said HK$50 million (US$6.4 million, 44 million yuan) would be spent on the Web3 ecosystem and task force for the development of virtual assets.
