Why was Hong Kong unable to substantially implement tax information exchange in time?

Hong Kong committed to introducing the necessary changes to enable it to adopt the liberalized tax information exchange provisions as early as 2005. However, Hong Kong was unable to conclude 12 bilateral tax agreements that contained the liberalized tax information exchange provisions by February 2010.1 This article explains the reasons for Hong Kong’s failure to meet the February 2010 deadline to substantially implement the tax information exchange provision in accordance with its commitment to the OECD.