The Hong Kong government launched Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES) in October 2003. The scheme required investors to invest HK$10 million (USD 1.25m) in permissible investment asset classes such as equities, bonds, debt securities etc.
This scheme was suspended from 15 January 2015 until further notice.
Although this scheme is no more today, during the period of 12 years, 3 months, this scheme collected a whopping HK $313 billion (US$39b), becoming the granddaddy of golden visa schemes, eclipsing all other golden visa schemes in world. Even the US EB-5 despite running for 27 years since 1992, collected only $36 billion. Portugal received close to $5 billion dollars from golden visa investments.
Here is the quick statistics of economic impact created by HK capital investment scheme
- HK$42 billion invested in real estate, $270m in financial assets
- Over 44,000 applications received, 35,000 applications approved
- 91% of rich Chinese applied for this scheme, foreign nationals only 8%
Here is the breakdown of the statistics of applicants under CIES, as at 31-12-2018, according to the latest statistics provided by HK immigration office.
| Received | Approval-in-principle granted | Formal Approval granted | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreign nationals | 3 088 | 25 | 2 183 |
| Macao SAR residents | 538 | 5 | 430 |
| Chinese nationals with permanent residence overseas | 40 478 | 605 | 32 125 |
| Stateless persons with permanent residence in a foreign country | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Taiwan residents | 546 | 3 | 376 |
| Total | 44 653 | 638 | 35 117 |
Breakdown of Investment Classes in Formal Approval Cases (as at 31-12-2018)
| Real Estate (Million) | Specified Financial Assets (Million) | Total (Million) |
|---|---|---|
| 42,588.23 | 270,833.35 | 313,421.58 |
From 14 October 2010, as a part of changes to the scheme the investment threshold (and Net assets or Net equity requirement) has been raised from HK$6.5 million to HK$10 million and real estate has been suspended as a class of permissible investment assets.
The entrepreneur route for Hong Kong is still open for potential entrepreneurs and investors.
