Setting up an import or export trading company in Hong Kong: registration, systems, and global operations guide

Hong Kong is a prime hub for import and export companies, offering a flexible tax regime, free capital flow, and a strong legal framework. Its strategic location connects businesses seamlessly with supply chains in mainland China.

However, establishing a foreign trade company requires careful planning and extensive financial and administrative work. From navigating company registration to implementing multi-currency payment systems, attention to detail is crucial.

This guide will cover the essentials of registration, global financial infrastructure, and operational strategies, helping you reduce costs and enhance efficiency in your foreign trade ventures.

Why establish an import or export company in Hong Kong?

Conducting foreign trade under a company name is vital for building trustworthy business relationships. Operating as a limited company helps enhance brand reputation, secure favourable credit terms, and negotiate effectively, while also supporting business expansion through solid governance and compliance systems.

Hong Kong's low tax rates, free capital movement, and mature legal framework make it an ideal base for foreign trade. It connects seamlessly to mainland China and opens doors to European, American, and Southeast Asian markets. However, the real challenge lies in managing global capital flows – adapting to local payment habits, controlling currency conversion costs, and ensuring timely supplier payments.

As you consider your location, it's crucial to evaluate not just tax regulations but also local payment capabilities and cross-border infrastructure, as these will impact your cash flow management. As a sophisticated entrepot, Hong Kong provides more than just  tax advantages. It offers a ready-made support network of financial services, legal consultants, and cross-border trade talent, its entire ecosystem is made to lower the barriers to international expansion.

Your choice of location is just the beginning. The true challenge lies in global fund management, adapting to local payment practices, controlling foreign exchange costs, and maintaining transfer efficiencies. We will go through these strategies with you in the blogs to help you overcome these obstacles.

4 steps to building your import or export company

Step 1: Planning your import or export business

Starting a foreign trade company is a comprehensive undertaking: from business planning and formation to financial infrastructure and payment optimisation. Dividing the process into four phases helps clarify your focus at each stage.

In the first phase, set a clear direction for your business before creating your company structure. Success in trade relies not just on pricing but also on supply chain flexibility, delivery times, and after-sales support.

Begin with market research to identify sales channels, quality standards, tariff requirements, and preferred payment methods. Develop your product strategy by defining SKUs (Stock Keeping Unit), pricing models, and freight arrangements. Decide on a business model, whether it's establishing your own website, using online marketplaces, or employing a B2B distribution approach.

Company registration is straightforward, involving company type selection, name approval, and submitting necessary documentation. However, many entrepreneurs struggle with global capital structures, particularly in having to create multiple bank accounts and losses during currency exchange.

When choosing your company location and preparing registration paperwork, also plan for:

• Accounting systems and tax reporting: Develop a tax filing schedule, set out your Chart of Accounts and invoicing rules from the beginning to ensure seamless integration between your accounting softwares and fund management systems, thereby error-proofing your process.

• Global payment processes: Plan the payment methods you will accept in each market and strategize what currencies will be involved. Have a currency exchange strategy to help you minimise loss from repeated account openings and currency exchanges. 

• Supply chain management: Choose your logistics, customs, and supplier partners to make sure your supply chain moves smoothly for both your funds and goods. 

Step 2: Establishing a one-stop global payment framework

Trade companies often deal with payments across different countries. Instead of opening multiple accounts, it's more efficient to establish a comprehensive system to handle your global financial operations from the beginning. This system should handle multi-currency payments, exchanges, and reconciliations on one platform rather than relying on scattered accounts.

With Airwallex’s Business Account, you can manage Global Accounts for over 20 currencies on a single platform, allowing you to receive payments as easily as with a local bank. This setup helps avoid unnecessary currency losses by managing foreign currencies within multi-currency accounts, eliminating forced exchanges. The platform also integrates seamlessly with accounting software like Xero, QuickBooks, and NetSuite, saving time on reconciliations.

Airwallex allows your company to scale globally while retaining all the benefits of staying local, enabling centralised management of global funds while processing local currency payments. This approach leads to faster settlements, lower transaction fees, and better cash flow visibility.

For instance, when a European client pays in euros, the payment goes directly into the euro account, allowing you to pay local suppliers in euros as well. This reduces foreign exchange losses and costs, with concentrated currency exchanges occurring only when necessary to control costs and timing efficiently.

Step 3: Optimising payment processes

The core of cash flow management in import/export businesses hinges on payments and collections. 

Common issues when making payments to suppliers include slow processing speeds and inconsistent payment amounts, which can complicate reconciliations. Traditional international remittances typically involve several intermediaries, which slows down the transaction and affects the procurement timeline; it can also result in layered costs and unpredictable foreign exchange spread across different banks.

By using Airwallex's FX and transfer services, you can handle over 90 currencies with competitive interbank exchange rates, ensuring transparency in your costs. Around 90% of Airwallex transactions are processed via local payment networks, with up to 95% of funds being credited on the same day, and 52% of transactions being immediately deposited, speeding up remittances. The payment systems also support batch transfers and approval workflows, allowing you to manage daily payments at scale.

Effective cross-border payments relies on three key elements: prioritising local payment networks, offering transparent rates, and supporting internal workflows (such as batch process and authorisation). These can enhance remittance speed, reduce costs, and strengthen internal controls. Take stock of your major supplier currencies and locations and prioritise same-currency payments.

Other than the challenge of international transfers, your company will also need solutions to manage preferred payment methods from different markets. Airwallex’s global acquiring services support over 160 payment methods, including major card networks, e-wallets, bank transfers, and buy-now-pay-later services. It can also display prices in over 130 currencies on your own website, allowing you to receive payments in the same currency and settle without forced exchanges, stabilising gross profits and improving reconciliation efficiency. For businesses with online stores, Airwallex offers simple checkout solutions and payment plugins that easily integrate shopping carts with your ERP systems. You can also provide customers with Payment Links for cross-border, multi-currency transactions through various channels like social media and email.

Different markets have their preferred payment methods. When formulating collection strategies, support the top three local payment methods in your target market, enable your online store to show prices in multiple currencies, and settle in the same currency, which can enhance conversion rates and improve profit margins.

Expense management and human resources management systems

As your business grows, managing expenses can become a challenge. Dispersed costs, such as business trips, ordering samples, software subscriptions, advertising, and participating in expos, can become hard to manage. Using traditional credit cards often comes with foreign transaction fees and an opaque exchange rate, increasing the burden on reconciliation. Additionally, cumbersome reimbursement processes and lost receipts can delay closing and tax procedures.

Airwallex’s Spend Management solution offers complete expense control and integrates seamlessly with your internal systems, automating the process from spending to payroll. You can quickly issue virtual or physical company cards, set custom multi-currency spending rules, enjoy zero FX fees, and earn spending rebates. Employees can upload receipts via mobile, with the system automatically reading, categorising, and initiating approval workflows.

Airwallex simplifies global payroll, enabling you to pay employees and contractors in various countries through its platform. It supports batch payments in multiple currencies via local networks for quick, cost-effective processing. Payments can easily sync with your HR system’s payroll module, automating the transition from expense claims to salary disbursements, thus reducing the administrative burden.

End-of-month auto-reconciliation lightens the finance team's workload, while the integration with the payroll module allows for unified processing of reimbursements and salary payments. Additionally, the Bill Pay and Purchase Order features create a smooth workflow from supplier invoicing to payment, enhancing compliance, budget efficiency, and inter-departmental collaboration.Consolidating company cards, expenses, and accounts payable on a single platform gives you real-time visibility into budget usage and cross-currency spending trends, enabling proactive adjustments before the next settlement cycle.

Key compliance areas for foreign trade companies: import & export, customs, and taxation

Compliance for trading internationally often relies on goods and payments being traceable, verifiable and having the documents to support your claims. So you can imagine, running a trade company will require keeping extensive paperwork. For example, importing and exporting specific goods, such as food, cosmetics or medical devices will often require additional permits.  Properly declaring the Harmonised System Code (HS Code), origin, and customs value of your goods is also crucial, along with retaining customs documents and invoices for purchases. Different markets have varying regulations on commercial invoices, value-added tax, and retention periods. Keeping documentation of everything easily becomes overwhelming and missing any detail can lead to compliance issues.

By automating logs for payment transactions, currency, invoices, and expense categories, and synchronising with accounting systems in real time, tax reporting and audits become manageable tasks rather than acute stress tests. This ensures a clear trace of each fund's source and flow, making compliance an integral part of operations.

Creating processes around documentation management, same-currency strategies, and automated reconciliations can significantly reduce the uncertainties surrounding auditing and tax reporting, while also shortening financial reporting cycles. It is best to link corresponding documentation in real-time at the moment of transaction to ensure smooth auditing processes and saving time. Waiting until the end of the month to compile documents often leads to delayed timelines and errors.

Why Airwallex is the ideal financial partner for modern foreign trade companies

Setting up an import or export trade company in Hong Kong requires a cohesive global financial operations system, not just a variety of tools. Airwallex starts with a robust infrastructure that integrates Global Accounts for payment collection, FX & Transfers, Checkout, Corporate Cards, Expense Management, and accounting software integrations. This enables smoother fund flows, reduced costs, and enhanced transparency.

With a single platform, you can consolidate collections, currency exchanges, payments, and reimbursements, decreasing reliance on multiple suppliers and simplifying operations. Airwallex emphasises speed and cost efficiency, leveraging local payment networks in over 120 countries, achieving approximately 95% same-day transfers and around 52% immediate deposits, with competitive interbank rates for over 90 currencies.

To achieve quick results, we recommend dividing operational processes into three phases over 30, 60, and 90 days:

• First 30 days: Focus on launching global payment collection and payment functionalities to solidify cash flow.

• Next 60 days: Implement Expense Management and automated claims to enhance internal controls.

• Final 90 days: Integrate procurement processes and systematic reconciliations for comprehensive financial collaboration.

This phased approach allows you to gradually expand functionalities, boosting efficiency and visualising operational funds quickly.

Our global payment services offer local collection accounts in 70 countries, facilitating local collections with global coordination. Whether you're launching a startup or managing a large enterprise, the platform allows flexible expansion of permission settings and workflows. Airwallex meets multiple international security standards, ensuring the highest levels of reliability.

Processing over HK$235 billion in global payments annually for over 200,000 businesses, Airwallex supports your needs with a team of 2,000 professionals across 26 regions. Our scale and experience lead to enhanced efficiency and cost benefits for your daily operations.

FAQs for setting up a foreign trade company

How much startup capital is needed to establish an import or export company?

Startup capital requirements vary by industry, product type, and sales channels. Key costs include company registration, legal fees, initial inventory, and operational expenses like logistics, customs taxes, and marketing. Don’t forget to allocate resources for financial infrastructure. Choosing a modern platform with low entry barriers, transparent fees, and no minimum deposit can ease cash flow pressures. Additionally, multi-currency accounts and same-currency settlement features help avoid losses from frequent currency conversions, allowing you to focus funds on productive business areas.

In addition to traditional payment methods, what are some modern global payment solutions?

An ideal global payment solution must balance localisation, transparency, and efficiency, supporting clients' preferred payment methods – like credit cards, e-wallets, bank transfers, and buy now, pay later options. It should offer clear fee structures, competitive exchange rates, and predictable settlement cycles.

You can quickly initiate cross-border, multi-currency payments using one-click Payment Links. If you have a website, integrating checkout solutions and payment plugins with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can be done with minimal development effort. This enables multi-currency revenue management and direct settlement into global collection accounts, enhancing transaction conversion rates and gross profit control.

How to effectively manage the risks associated with international currency fluctuations?

Currency fluctuations impact gross margins and competitiveness. To manage this, prioritise same-currency payments and keep received foreign currencies in multi-currency accounts to prioritise corresponding procurement costs, maximising natural hedging.

For currency exchanges, use transparent rates only when necessary and consult professionals on advanced hedging solutions like short-term rate locks or forward exchanges. This tiered approach provides stable currency risk management at lower costs.

How to simplify salary disbursement when hiring employees or partners in different countries?

Paying salaries to overseas employees or freelancers can be challenging due to high exchange costs, slow crediting speeds, and reconciliation issues. Using Airwallex, you can send payments in batches to recipients in up to 200 countries simultaneously. Most remittances are processed through local networks, with about 95% credited the same day and 52% deposited instantly. This, combined with interbank rates, minimises your transfer costs. Each payment includes reference information that syncs with accounting systems for easy monthly reconciliation.

Disclaimer: This article was prepared in December 2025 based on voluntary online research and publicly available information. We have not personally tested every tool or provider mentioned. This article is for educational purposes only, and readers should independently evaluate each service provider based on their specific business requirements. Content is updated every six months. To request an update, please contact us at [email protected].