At the Belt and Road Working Group’s meeting on 14 February, Co-Convenor Nicholas Ho shared the takeaways from his trip to APEC Thailand in November and the recent Hong Kong mission to the Middle East. He said despite tensions between member economies, the APEC Thailand came to a successful conclusion as members signed a Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Agreement, reiterating the Asia-Pacific region’s commitment to sustainable growth.

On the mission to the Middle East led by the Chief Executive John Lee, Ho said Middle Eastern countries were eager to diversify their economies away from oil dependence and were proactively bringing in professional talent and services. There were ample opportunities in areas such as green finance, green bonds, family offices, bond and stock connect. He added that countries also displayed a strong urge to use Hong Kong as a platform to enter the GBA, which he saw as inseparable to the BRI. With the latter reaching its 10-year mark with over US$1 trillion invested in some 3,000 projects across 200 countries, he predicts BRI megaprojects will give way to smaller scale, but high-quality, ESG-driven, digital projects. This would also play to Hong Kong’s strengths with its state-of-the-art professional services sector.

The HKTDC 5th Belt & Road Global Forum Annual Roundtable was held on 2 September with the theme “Charting a Sustainable and Robust Path to Opportunities in a New Era”. Nicholas Ho and Edmond Yue, Co-Convenors of the Belt and Road Working Group, attended the forum. 

Ho, as a member of the panel, discussed the latest green developments along the BRI, as well as how businesses can build resilient supply chains amid global disruptions and how to mitigate operational risks under the "new normal".

Prof Yang Jian, Vice President and Senior Fellow in Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS), gave an overview of the latest developments of the Health Silk Road (HSR) and China's work to bridge the global vaccine gap at the Chamber’s Belt and Road Working Group, hosted by Edmond Yue, Co-convenor, on 11 April. He said China had recently pledged to supply an additional 1 billion vaccines to Africa, on top of the 2 billion pledged globally in 2021, to help the continent achieve its goal of vaccinating 60% of the African population by 2022. The country was also working with the international community to promote mutual vaccine recognition.

Also speaking at the meeting, Henry Tillman, Founder of China Investment Research, gave members an in-depth analysis of China's mRNA vaccine development, saying there was hope that one or two mRNA vaccines would be released in late 2022. China was working closely with over 27 developing countries via technology transfer and joint ventures to help them set up factories to produce vaccines locally, among which Indonesia, Pakistan, UAE and Uzbekistan led in number of vaccines produced. He encouraged members to explore investment opportunities in medical infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing along the HSR.
 

We had a constructive meeting with Rex Chang, the new Commissioner of Belt and Road Office on 14 March. He was accompanied by Mary Tsang, Assistant Commissioner of Belt and Road Office and Helen Cheng, Trade Officer of Belt and Road Office, and were welcomed by Chamber CEO George Leung and Belt & Road Working Group Co-Convenors Edmond Yue and Nicholas Ho.

Chang said despite the pandemic, the government's plan for the BRI was to maintain the same momentum and promote Hong Kong's role as a functional platform between the Mainland and the international community. His office had organized a few webinars with ASEAN counties, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and was planning to organize another session with United Arab Emirates soon, a country with which Hong Kong had seen business ties growing rapidly in the past couple of years.

Apart from connecting Hong Kong to the international market, Chang said it was also important to bring Hong Kong and Mainland businesses together and find synergy. With that in mind, his office was organizing a few events with Mainland authorities to help promote integration of Hong Kong's state-of-the-art professional services sector with projects owners in the Mainland. He added there were many opportunities in green financing to help build a sustainable BRI.