GFN – HONG KONG: Hong Kong and Laos have signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a gold market cooperation framework, opening the city's accredited refining network to qualified Lao gold owners and linking them to its clearing infrastructure.
The agreement, reported by The Standard, was signed by Christopher Hui Ching-yu, Hong Kong's Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, and Santiphab Phomvihane, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Laos. It allows qualified Lao gold owners to access Hong Kong's accredited refining network and encourages the use of internationally standard refined bars, while giving Lao participants entry to the city's capital markets infrastructure, liquidity, and price discovery mechanisms. The framework also covers talent development, fintech applications including tokenization, regulatory cooperation on anti-money laundering, and joint international promotion across Belt and Road countries.
"Hong Kong's competitive tax regime - with no sales tax nor import duty on investment-grade gold, and no capital gains tax - positions the city as an efficient hub," Hui said.
The memorandum follows a sequence of measures intended to build out the city's bullion infrastructure. Hong Kong recently launched a central gold clearing and settlement system, and has announced plans to expand storage capacity beyond 2,000 tonnes within three years, introduce new exchange-traded funds and futures products, deepen cooperation with the Shanghai Gold Exchange, and establish an industry-led trade association.
The arrangement extends that infrastructure to a Southeast Asian jurisdiction, adding a documented route between Lao gold owners and internationally recognized refining capacity, along with the certification and financing that accompany it. Tax treatment is central to the pitch, since investment-grade gold entering Hong Kong carries neither import duty nor sales tax, and disposals are not subject to capital gains tax.
The buildout follows a substantial repricing in the metal, with gold trading near 4,000 dollars an ounce, roughly 68 percent above its level two years ago and about a quarter below the record set in late January. The development reflects broader efforts by Hong Kong to position itself as a settlement and refining hub for physical gold moving within Asia.