By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-22 03:31:30 | Updated at 2025-03-22 09:19:16
6 hours ago
Hong Kong has long been the base of William Louey Lai-kuen’s wealth-generating and charitable endeavours, but the eldest great-grandson of Kowloon Motor Bus’ (KMB) founder said he plans to do more thanks to programmes unveiled by the city’s government.
“Many of my friends have increased their investment and charity activities in Hong Kong after the government introduced many measures to promote family offices two years ago,” he said. “I myself also plan to expand my educational charity in Hong Kong.”
Just two years ago, the government unveiled eight measures at the first Wealth for Good in Hong Kong Summit with the aim of attracting affluent families to the city so they could set up family offices to manage their investments, art collections, charities – and plan for the future. The measures included tax incentives, a revamped investment-migration scheme, streamlined rules for charitable foundations and the establishment of the Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy.
“For those of you interested in setting up a family office here, I want you to know that the thriving development of your business in Hong Kong is a central policy priority of the government,” Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told assembled guests at the summit.
Two years on, all but one of the eight measures has yet to be implemented: an art storage facility at Hong Kong International Airport. That will hopefully become a reality later this year or early next year, according to Jason Fong, the global head of family offices at InvestHK, a government agency tasked with promoting the city.
“The new family office measures have attracted newcomers and encouraged existing family offices … to expand their investments, arts collections and charity activities in Hong Kong,” Fong said in an interview.
Over the past two years, Fong’s office has conducted more than 260 roadshows globally to promote the city and helped 160 family offices to get set up in Hong Kong. An additional 150 family offices plan to follow suit, which would put Lee’s goal of having at least 200 large family offices set up in the city by the end of 2025 well within reach.
