Starting from January 1, 2025, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China will establish a new trading institution called the "Hong Kong Gold Exchange". The institution will be renamed and restructured from the gold and silver trading market that has been operating locally for 114 years. The Hong Kong Gold Exchange will take over all trading business of precious metals such as gold and silver on the trading platform.

The Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange announced that the "Hong Kong Gold Exchange" was registered and established in June 2024, and held a media conference on December 20, 2024 to announce that the Hong Kong Gold Exchange will officially rename and operate. The Chairman of the Exchange, Zhang Dexi, stated that the establishment of the exchange is in line with the proposal in the Policy Address to elevate Hong Kong to an international gold trading center, and believes that the future of the exchange is long and arduous.

Zhang Dexi mentioned that he and his two vice chairmen, Xie Manquan and Li Weihong, will join the "Working Group for Promoting the Development of the Gold Market" established by the government, hoping to provide advice and suggestions to the government. I hope to provide advice to the Hong Kong government to assist in making Hong Kong a gold trading center in the short term.

Zhang Dexi stated that over the past year, he has actively advocated for the "Gold Commodity Connect" with the Hong Kong government and received recognition in the Chief Executive's Policy Address. The report specifically mentions the construction of a gold warehouse and an international level gold trading center, reflecting the Hong Kong government's high attention to the development of the gold industry and listing it as an important direction to promote economic development, attract talents and enterprises. The industry is full of expectations for policy implementation and hopes to work together with the financial sector to promote the Hong Kong economy.

The policy of supporting the construction of international level gold storage facilities and trading centers proposed in the Policy Address has greatly encouraged the precious metal industry. At the same time, the Treasury Bureau has established a working group to promote the development of the gold market, bringing together industry and professionals, including Zhang Dexi, to consolidate Hong Kong's position as an international gold center. The group will promote the expansion of related supporting financial businesses, such as insurance, testing and certification, and logistics, further promoting the development and trading activities of gold derivative products.

The Hong Kong Gold Exchange will replace the 115 year old gold and silver trading platform as the local exchange for spot gold and silver.

In addition, the Hong Kong Gold Exchange plans to incorporate innovative elements into its existing trading products, such as digital gold GoldZip, and plans to list it on locally compliant licensed cryptocurrency trading platforms. With the gold market once again becoming the focus of global and Hong Kong attention, the new exchange hopes to attract more international precious metal traders to settle in Hong Kong through innovation and inheritance.

  In recent years, the geopolitical situation has been turbulent, and experts believe that the shift in the overall situation has actually created an opportunity for Hong Kong to "encircle" itself.

Hong Kong 01 "states that as is well known, the Hong Kong stock market is relatively developed, and people easily regard the stock market as a financial center. However, in fact, financial centers can also include bond markets, money markets, gold markets, commodity markets, and so on. At this time, Hong Kong announced its determination to build a "golden harbor" and launched multiple measures to strive to become an international gold trading center, which can be considered a "good opportunity".

At present, the place where gold is stored in Hong Kong is the vault located at the airport. Zhang Dexi admitted that the treasury reserves suggested to the Hong Kong government in the early years were relatively conservative. Although the Airport Authority intended to increase the treasury reserves, it also valued the construction of new vaults outside the airport, including in the northern metropolitan area and even the Lok Ma Chau Loop.

Zhang Dexi explained that due to the fact that the airport's vault is located in a restricted area, it aims to serve as a transit point for gold, but for gold traders, settlement is not convenient; On the contrary, if a gold vault is established in Lok Ma Chau, due to its proximity to the mainland, we hope to use this opportunity to strive for "interconnectivity" related to gold products with the mainland.

Zhang Dexi said that in the coming days, it is expected that geopolitics will be difficult to calm down, and many countries' currency exchange rate fluctuations will cause gold to rise again. The purchase of gold by central banks has become a driving force for the growth of gold demand in recent years. Data shows that the proportion of gold demand from the central bank has surged from 11% in 2021 to 23% last year.

The mainland Chinese media "Caijing" magazine reported that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China is planning to explore interconnectivity with relevant financial markets in mainland China at an appropriate time. To promote this new mechanism of interconnectivity, relevant personnel in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China are actively suggesting the promotion of the "Gold Commodity Connect". This new mechanism, also known as "Golden Link", may draw on the experience of the Stock Link and Bond Connect that have been implemented for several years.

The report points out that from the perspective of the advantages of extending the industrial chain, Hong Kong has stable, secure and international characteristics, and is also a key gold trading hub in Asia.

In recent years, Hong Kong Legislative Council member Li Weihong, who has actively promoted the development of related industries, explained to Caijing that Hong Kong has a long history of engaging in trading of gold commodity futures and derivative instruments. However, some argue that the overall push is still insufficient, leading some experts to expand their business overseas.

Currently, gold is the world's largest asset, with an asset size of $17.88 trillion. According to the World Gold Council, based on the main uses of physical gold, the global demand for gold will reach 4617 tons in 2023, with gold jewelry accounting for 45%, gold bars and coins accounting for 26%, and central bank purchases accounting for 23%.

At the same time, gold is also a liquid asset, with an average daily trading volume of $162.6 billion last year, second only to the US S&P 500 index.

Regarding the trend of gold prices, Zhang Dexi stated that although gold prices are not considered high at high levels, he has been slightly conservative in his outlook on the future of gold prices recently. He believes that after Trump takes office as the President of the United States, foreign trade policies and the trend of US interest rates will affect the trend of gold prices. He predicts that there is not much chance for a significant downward adjustment in gold prices, and expects gold prices to stabilize at over $2500 per ounce, with an upward outlook of $2850 per ounce.