Hong Kong's financial chief John Tsang said Wednesday in his budget speech that the city has achieved progress in various aspects of the financial service sector in the past year, and the government will keep up its efforts in maintaining Hong Kong's edge in financial services.

Tsang said Hong Kong topped the Financial Development Index released by the World Economic Forum in late 2011 for the first time, overtaking the United States and the United Kingdom.

The RMB trade settlement conducted through Hong Kong amounted to 1.9 trillion yuan (about 301.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2011, which was five times the value of the whole year of 2010.

At the end of last year, there were 116 RMB bond issuances with a total value approaching 180 billion yuan, and RMB deposits in Hong Kong amounted to nearly 590 billion yuan, representing an increase of nearly 90 percent compared with the 310 billion yuan at the end of 2010.

Tsang said the eight measures which are beneficial to the development of RMB business in Hong Kong released by the central government last year have been implemented.