For me, the word “brilliance” conjures up an image of the night sky on a clear evening with the stars aligning. That then leads me to both China Daily Hong Kong Edition’s 25th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Anniversaries provide a good opportunity to reflect on past achievements and even more importantly to look to the future. In that vein, I’d like to share my thoughts on the opportunities that lie ahead for Chinese mainland and international investors in and via Hong Kong.
On July 1, President Xi Jinping delivered his important speech in Hong Kong. I believe he made some crucial points which are very relevant to the global business community about Hong Kong. President Xi said that “one country, two systems” “serves the fundamental interests of not only Hong Kong and Macao, but also the whole country and the nation”. He went on to say, “There is no reason for us to change such a good policy, and we must adhere to it in the long run.”
President Xi also said, “The central government fully supports Hong Kong in its effort to maintain its distinctive status and edges, to improve its presence as an international financial, shipping and trading center, to keep its business environment free, open, and regulated, and to maintain the common law, so as to expand and facilitate its exchanges with the world.” This clear direction and strong support for Hong Kong to elevate its global role and contribute to the country’s further economic development is noteworthy.
These are messages that I and my colleagues at InvestHK are sharing every day with our partners and existing and potential investors across our global network. We also highlight the roles for Hong Kong that are set out in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), again important context for investors.
Hong Kong’s role as the international innovation and technology hub for the country is a key one and inextricably linked with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. … The potential for universities, research institutes and small and large businesses to leverage basic research and use Hong Kong as fertile ground for commercialization is a tremendous opportunity
We share the diverse and exciting array of opportunities — routes to growth — that businesses can capture in and via Hong Kong. In short, our job is to help equip our investors with the factual information that helps them make informed decisions on their future plans. I would venture to say that at no time during my career has this been more important given the prevalence of social media and tendency for polarized views.
As we undertake our unrelenting daily work across InvestHK’s network, we inevitably hear about the challenges the global economy and businesses face: geopolitical issues, rising energy and food prices, inflationary pressures and the impact these headwinds have on the lives and livelihood of people. But we hear and see too so many businesses working hard to make a difference, to grow and generate employment, to solve and contribute to shared challenges, such as climate change. Herein is where Hong Kong has an important role to play as a route to growth.
In the last few months I have been on the road, visiting countries across Europe, the Middle East and in Australasia. I am encouraged that so many businesses — all leaders in their fields — are showing keen interest in the Hong Kong proposition. They are in good company too.
Our city was home to over 9,000 international and mainland enterprises in 2021 — a record high. Hong Kong also has a burgeoning startup ecosystem, with a record 3,755 startups in 2021, including over 600 fintech companies. I fully expect to see these record high figures swell further in the years to come.
Against a backdrop of various headwinds, rapid change through more and more adoption of technology and some of the big issues the world together needs to solve — all in themselves creating opportunity — there are changes in the nature, scope, depth and breadth of opportunity that Hong Kong offers investors from around the world. Let me share a few of the most significant ones.
Hong Kong’s role as the international innovation and technology hub for the country is a key one and inextricably linked with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Over the past five years, the city has invested over HK$150 billion ($19.1 billion) in innovation and technology development, with one-third in promoting research and development, introducing various initiatives in areas such as capital, talent and infrastructure. The potential for universities, research institutes and small and large businesses to leverage basic research and use Hong Kong as fertile ground for commercialization is a tremendous opportunity. Think artificial intelligence and robotics, life sciences and advanced manufacturing and materials.
The Greater Bay Area as the international hub to connect the mainland with the rest of the world — and I stress this in both directions, into and out of the GBA — offers market and economic scale, a large population and many leading world-class enterprises.
Meeting the HKSAR government’s net-zero ambitions, as well the country’s, together with other parts of Asia will lead to a wide range of new opportunities for products and know-how. That’s why at InvestHK we are just about to launch a cross-cutting team focused on net zero.
At a macro level, I see the potential for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to play a major role in shifting and rebalancing global trade and investment flows, with high potential for growth in the north-south flows intra-Asia-Pacific region.
In all of these areas, and in many more, Hong Kong will play an even more important role in two-way trade and investment. It is closely related to our role as a top-three international financial center, where companies from around the world can raise capital and mitigate risk availing of world class professional services.
At InvestHK, our role is to help business from the mainland and all around the world to figure out what Hong Kong can and could mean for their growth plans. We are strengthening our team and this will open new offices in Central Asia and Africa.
As China Daily Hong Kong Edition celebrates its 25th anniversary, I would like to recognize how very much Invest HK has valued our partnership with it over the years. Without doubt, CDHK is a great partner in our promotion of Hong Kong. Our team has been working closely with the paper to tell the powerful story of Hong Kong, and we will continue to do so. We also value CDHK’s high quality events, which provide excellent platforms to delve even deeper into the most important issues of the day. At the personal level, I have appreciated working with CDHK for well over 16 years in my current and past roles. So as we both celebrate 25th anniversaries, we look forward to continuing and building upon our partnership.
To conclude, I would like to return to the speech of President Xi on July 1, where he said “while there are both opportunities and challenges, opportunities outnumber the challenges”. I could not agree more. Our collective efforts and energies, through day-to-day and sustained actions, should be focused on realizing opportunities and finding solutions to challenges.
The author is the director-general of investment promotion at Invest Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.