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The electronic platform of the Mandatory Provident Fund (eMPF) will cut administration fees for 378 investment funds by more than 21 per cent from April 1, the pension regulator said on Tuesday, adding that this will achieve its cost-saving target of HK$50 billion (US$6.4 billion) in less than 10 years. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po approved the reduction, which would lower administration costs from 0.37 per cent to 0.29 per cent of assets under management, representing a 21.6 per cent fee......

New technology is transforming international trade and, with the help of the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), Chinese firms are increasingly well placed to compete globally. “For Chinese companies going overseas, the requirement has evolved from just providing infrastructure to infrastructure plus AI technology,” says Han Hongyuan, vice-president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group. “They also want to use AI to support their business in overseas markets. “Even before the AI wave, they......

As leading Chinese chip executives predict that autonomous AI agents will trigger an unprecedented explosion in computing demand, Hong Kong is accelerating efforts to expand its artificial intelligence computing capacity. Calling token consumption in the era of AI “far beyond our imagination”, Zhang Jianzhong, founder and CEO of graphics processing unit designer Moore Threads, said at an AI summit in Hong Kong on Saturday that the exponential surge in demand had made it impossible for anyone to......

Hong Kong stocks rebounded on Tuesday on signs of a de-escalation of the US-Israel war on Iran. The Hang Seng Index rose 1.2 per cent to 24,678.33 as of 9.42am local time. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.3 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index climbed 0.1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.4 per cent. Laopu Gold jumped 11 per cent to HK$619.50 and machine tool maker Techtronic Industries surged 9.4 per cent to HK$112.20. Alibaba Group Holding added 1.1 per cent to......

Country Garden Holdings is expected to return to profit for the year ended 2025 due to the non-cash gain recorded from the completion of the group's debt restructuring. According to its filings to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday night, the group will record “a profit ranging from approximately one billion yuan to 2.2 billion yuan (US$145 million to US$320 million) for the year ended 31 December 2025”. This compared with the loss of about 35.15 billion yuan over the same period in......

Private equity investment in the Asia-Pacific region is increasingly flowing into advanced manufacturing and healthcare, as global uncertainties push investors towards businesses with more predictable cash flow, according to Bain & Co research. The move away from the previously dominant technology, media and telecommunications sector “has been a gradual move, driven by the external environment and uncertainties”, said Elsa Sit, practice vice-president in the Asia-Pacific private equity team with......

Surging oil prices driven by the US-Israel war on Iran could accelerate the global adoption of electric vehicles – a sector that helped China overtake Japan to become the world's largest seller of automobiles last year. “The closure of the Strait of Hormuz could be a game-changer for EVs,” said David Brown, director of energy transition research at Wood Mackenzie, in a report released on Friday. The “eye-watering” 50 per cent surge in global oil prices so far this month would further incentivise......

Last week, Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC) announced the establishment of the Hong Kong RISC-V Alliance. The move follows Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po's earlier pledge to actively promote collaboration among industry, academia and the investment sector to develop the open-source chip technology. In this explainer, the South China Morning Post takes a closer look at RISC-V, why it is important and why HKIC is interested. What is RISC-V technology? RISC-V, an open-standard......

Three Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers have raised prices for some models in response to rising supply chain costs, but analysts say the increases are unlikely to be sustained given weakening domestic demand. Xiaomi became the latest manufacturer to adjust pricing on March 19, announcing that its new-generation SU7 standard version would start at 219,900 yuan (US$31,800) – a 4,000 yuan increase over the previous model. Founder and CEO Lei Jun had attributed the rise to aggressive surges in......

Tencent Holdings is rolling out a “ClawBot” plug-in for China's most popular app WeChat as it seeks to capitalise on the OpenClaw craze, even as authorities continue to warn about risks. The move announced on Sunday will allow WeChat's more than 1 billion monthly active users to command their OpenClaw artificial intelligence agents directly through the app, which is deeply embedded in daily life in China. In recent weeks, almost every Chinese tech giant has announced new offerings based on......

About 130 family office decision-makers and affluent second-generation members from across the world attended a dinner held by the Hong Kong government on Monday evening, including billionaire Pop Mart founder, chairman and CEO Wang Ning. The dinner set the stage for the fourth edition of the Wealth for Good in Hong Kong (WGHK) Summit, themed “Building Lasting Legacies”, which will take place on Tuesday, as the city promotes its capabilities as an international wealth management hub amid global......

China's Unitree Robotics has filed for a long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai's Star Market, seeking to raise about 4.2 billion yuan (US$607.8 million). Widely seen as a bellwether for China's emerging humanoid robotics industry, Unitree's listing, if approved, could become a landmark test of investor appetite for so-called embodied AI companies. Here is what you need to know about Unitree, including how it makes a profit while peers are still burning cash, its shareholder......

The international commerce unit of Alibaba Group Holding on Monday introduced an enterprise-focused artificial intelligence agent platform to automate complex cross-border e-commerce operations for small businesses worldwide, as companies rush to adopt AI agents to boost efficiency. The Accio Work agent platform unveiled by Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC) was designed to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and solo founders access to an AI task force by deploying a......

China has pledged to strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) security, including through a new data property rights framework, at a time when users and businesses are rapidly adopting the highly coveted but controversial OpenClaw. On Monday, Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, said security and compliance had become core challenges as AI spread across industry and daily life. Speaking at the China Development Forum, Liu cited challenges ranging from copyright disputes over......

Major Hong Kong developers Henderson Land Development and Kerry Properties both reported mixed 2025 results, with stronger home sales partly offsetting softer rental income and a subdued commercial property market. The earnings underscored how the city's developers are shifting focus towards projects that can still generate cash flow, mainly high-end housing in Hong Kong and top-tier mainland cities, while waiting for offices and retail to recover. Recent geopolitical tensions, including the......

Chinese drone giant DJI has filed a lawsuit against its crosstown rival Insta360 for alleged patent infringement, a move that was made public three days ahead of the launch of DJI's first 360-degree drone, a niche pioneered by its smaller competitor. The lawsuit, filed recently with the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in the southern tech hub where both companies are based, involved six patents covering critical technologies including drone flight control, structural design and image......

A steady stream of cars pulled into an ordinary petrol station in Beijing's Chaoyang District early on Monday afternoon, keeping the pumps far busier than on a normal weekday as drivers rushed to refuel ahead of the year's biggest price hike at midnight. “I'm taking my lunch break to top up the tank quickly ahead of the price increase, as I fear long queues after work in the evening,” said Frank Jin, an office employee in Beijing. China will raise refined oil prices at midnight, marking the......

Global investors should take a fresh look at China, where rapid technological advancement is converging with declining geopolitical risk relative to other regions, senior investment executives said at the Milken Institute's Global Investors' Symposium on Monday. The event in Hong Kong brought together 500 business leaders and senior executives from the investment, banking, finance, technology and consumer sectors under the theme “Capital in a Changing World”. “I think we should seriously think......

Last week, the energy shock caused by the war in Iran showed signs of becoming a full-blown financial and economic crisis. The attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East, coupled with soaring prices of crucial refined petroleum products such as diesel and jet fuel, forced investors to start pricing in a prolonged disruption to supply and a contraction in demand. Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens sooner than anticipated, the scale of the damage to energy assets in the Persian Gulf......

Regal Hotels International Holdings and its units have sold the 494-room Regal Kowloon Hotel for about HK$1.52 billion (US$194 million) to the real estate investment arm of Centaline Group, which operates one of Hong Kong's largest property agency networks, to be converted into a student hostel. Regal Hotels and affiliates Century City International Holdings and Paliburg Holdings agreed to dispose of the 17-storey hotel on Sa Po Road, including two basement floors, the group said in a filing......