ISLAMABAD: Minister of State and Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Bilal Bin Saqib held a series of high-level meetings in Hong Kong aimed at strengthening cooperation in digital finance, tokenised capital markets, regulatory innovation and frontier technologies.
During the visit, Bilal Bin Saqib met Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong SAR Government; and Duncan Chiu, Member of the Legislative Council representing the technology and innovation functional constituency. The meetings focused on Hong Kong’s experience in developing modern financial-market infrastructure and creating a regulated environment for digital assets and tokenised financial products.
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Discussions with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority included developments in financial regulation, tokenised capital markets, digital bonds, settlement infrastructure and technology-enabled supervision. Pakistan is particularly interested in learning from Hong Kong’s experience as it explores how tokenisation could support the future development of government securities, sukuk and other real-world financial assets.
The meeting with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau explored opportunities for closer institutional cooperation, knowledge exchange and engagement between Hong Kong financial institutions and emerging opportunities in Pakistan. Both sides discussed the importance of moving beyond broad policy dialogue towards practical areas of cooperation, including technical exchanges, institutional roundtables and the identification of specific tokenisation use cases for further study.
Saqib also met Duncan Chiu to discuss the role of legislation in supporting innovation, the development of competitive fintech and Web3 ecosystems, and opportunities for collaboration in artificial intelligence, cyber security and other frontier technologies.
The discussion examined how Hong Kong could serve as a bridge connecting Pakistani technology companies and investment opportunities with investors, technology firms and industrial partners across Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
Pakistan’s engagement with Hong Kong would focus on institutional learning and practical cooperation rather than ceremonial agreements, he added.
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