Hong Kong's Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements

Hong Kong has been endeavouring to sign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements ("IPPAs" or "Investment Agreements" in short) with foreign economies in order to enhance two-way investment flows and boost our economy. An IPPA is an agreement between governments for the promotion and protection of investments made by investors of one contracting party in the area of the other contracting party.

Hong Kong's IPPAs give additional assurance to overseas investors that their investments in Hong Kong are protected, and enable Hong Kong investors to enjoy similar protection in respect of their investments overseas.
 
A typical IPPA provides for, among others, the following:

• fair and equitable treatment of investments;
• full protection and security of investments;
• non-discriminatory treatment of investments;
• non-discriminatory treatment in compensation for losses owing to, among others, war or other armed conflict;
• compensation for expropriation of investments;
• free transfer abroad of investments and returns;
• exceptions to obligations to provide policy space to a contracting party including for reasons of essential security interests;
• settlement of investment disputes between a contracting party and an investor of another contracting party; and
• settlement of disputes between the contracting parties on interpretation or application of the IPPA.

Hitherto, Hong Kong has signed 24 IPPAs with foreign economies. Separately, an Investment Agreement under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) was signed in 2017 and has been implemented since 1 January 2018.

• Invest Hong Kong

The Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales (BUD Fund) provides funding support for individual non-listed Hong Kong enterprises to undertake projects to develop brands, upgrade and restructure their business operations and promote sales in the economies with which Hong Kong has signed IPPAs. For details, please refer to the dedicated webpage of the BUD Fund.

Enquiries, comments and suggestions on IPPAs, including the IPPAs under negotiation, are welcome. They can be sent to:

Trade and Industry Tower, 3 Concorde Road, Kowloon City, Hong Kong
Tel. : 2398 5354 *
Fax : 2789 9761
E-mail :enquiry@tid.gov.hk

* Telephone conversations shall be recorded to ensure service quality. The recorded conversations will be kept for 90 days. Members of the public may request for conversations relevant to them recorded in 90 days on a CD, at a charge of $57 per CD.