Pakistan aims to pursue additional joint ventures with Hong Kong and explore opportunities for secondary listings of its companies in the city, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said.

“If there is an opportunity for companies out of Pakistan, as joint ventures with local companies, to come in and do primary and secondary listings in the Hong Kong stock exchange, for instance, I think it can be a real win-win, not only in terms of the investment that we expect back in Pakistan, but also outward investment,” he said an interview with the South China Morning Post on Monday, during a two-day visit to attend the Asian Financial Forum 2025.

Aurangzeb is scheduled to meet with Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, where he plans to discuss the potential for a delegation from Hong Kong to visit Pakistan soon to identify areas for enhanced collaboration.

He emphasised that facilitating Pakistani companies to list in Hong Kong would be a key focus of his discussions with the chief executive.

Aurangzeb added that Pakistani companies and banks have “historically favoured” secondary listings on the London Stock Exchange, largely due to a lack of awareness about Hong Kong’s strong reputation for international capital raising. “I would say that Hong Kong can certainly do more in promoting itself as a destination for companies to raise capital.”

In a separate interview with Bloomberg TV, he said that Pakistan plans to issue yuan-denominated bonds, known as panda bonds, this year to bolster its finances, with a target of raising between $200 million and $250 million from Chinese investors in the next six to nine months.

Also, read this

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb not running economy, claims journalist

‘Nothing to hide’ in IMF mission’s Pakistan visit: Finance Minister Aurangzeb

Transparency from philanthropy to end beneficiaries a must: Aurangzeb

The South Asian country is also prioritising Gulf countries for foreign investment while seeking to enhance trade relations with nations such as China, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Iran.

The finance minister stated that he hoped to encourage Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and city leader Lee to start a dialogue and send delegations to his country.

“Seeing is believing, that is the only way,” he said, “so I want to make a request to the chief executive to see if he can send a delegation … this is a start and hopefully during the course of this year, we can make progress on this front.”