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Abu Dhabi Shakes on FinTech Investment Pact with China

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:57 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:57 PM

The UAE’s second largest financial free zone has entered a partnership with a Chinese counterpart to enable fintech development and investment opportunities in both countries.

In an announcement  this week, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) revealed details of a new cooperation with the Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, also known as the Qianhai New District – a commercial development zone in Shenzhen, China.

Heralding the partnership as a ‘landmark development’ between the two countries, the ADGM sees the initiative to strengthen the trade network connecting Asia, Europe and Africa that was first established as the ancient Silk Road trade.

The two authorities will collaborate over investment opportunities together and a notable objective includes the strengthening of FinTech ecosystems in both markets in an era of digitization.

“As an International Financial Centre, we aim to further bolster financial services activities, facilitate investment flows and encourage business innovation,” stated ADGM’s financial services regulatory authority chief Richard Teng.

The pact will establish a joint investment platform to support FinTech startups and firms in China, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi to scale and expand in each other’s markets.

Teng added:

At ADGM, we will continue to foster and strengthen our partnerships with China and like-minded countries to build a dynamic and efficient financial ecosystem for the benefit of our economies and people.

One of these FinTech-forward countries is Singapore. Earlier this year in March, the ADGM signed a similar cooperation agreement with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the island nation’s central bank. As one of the world’s leading FinTech development hubs, Singapore’s FinTech foray is being spearheaded by its central bank. The MAS is among the first central banks in the world to be experimenting with its own digital currency. A digitized version of the Singapore dollar was put to test on an Ethereum blockchain by the central bank this year, within the wider project of an inter-bank payments platform on a blockchain.

Meanwhile, China is already the world’s leading FinTech destination where adoption and development are outpacing the rest. So much so, that Hong Kong’s defacto central bank signed a cooperation agreement with neighboring Shenzhen in China.

Featured image from Shutterstock.