Belt-Road Joint Conference Held

The third Joint Conference on Advancing Hong Kong's Full Participation in & Contribution to the Belt & Road Initiative was held virtually today.

The meeting reviewed Hong Kong’s work in taking forward the initiative after the last meeting and discussed new initiatives for the coming year in areas such as innovation and technology (I&T), professional services and capacity building, including collaborating in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic and thereby fostering people-to-people bonds, as well as promoting further collaboration between Mainland enterprises and Hong Kong professionals.

National Development & Reform Commission Vice Chairman Ning Jizhe attended the conference with officials including the commission’s Deputy Secretary General and the joint conference’s convenor Su Wei, and senior representatives from relevant Mainland ministries.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government officials attending the conference included Financial Secretary Paul Chan, Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development and Hong Kong-side convenor of the joint conference Edward Yau, and representatives from various bureaus.

At the meeting, the Hong Kong SAR Government reported on the progress made in other areas of work in advancing Hong Kong's participation in and contribution to the Belt & Road Initiative, including the strengthening of Hong Kong's economic and trade relations with other economies through forging more free trade agreements and investment agreements with its trading partners.

Other areas of progress include the organisation of a series of sharing and business matching activities, promoting Hong Kong businesses to explore development in the Economic & Trade Co-operation Zones (ETCZs), facilitating green and sustainable Belt & Road financial development, and promoting online dispute resolution services and Belt & Road-related legal co-operation.

As a facilitator and promoter for the initiative, the Hong Kong SAR Government will organise the fifth Belt & Road Summit at end November and plan for the second edition delegation of the Belt & Road Joint Conference Policy Exchanges & Capacity Building Programme within a year, continue with the Green Bond Grant Scheme and promote the Legal Hub project and its measures to enhance Hong Kong's status as a leading centre for international legal and dispute resolution services.

Both sides also discussed working together to study the promotion and participation of the Hong Kong testing and certification sector in related work, including undertaking China Compulsory Certification-related procedures and giving consideration to trying out pilot relaxation measures at overseas ETCZs set up by the Mainland in Belt & Road countries.

Mr Chan said Hong Kong has experienced challenges on various fronts in the past year and, in particular, the COVID-19 epidemic has dealt an unprecedented severe blow to the global economy, leading to a deep global economic recession and volatile financial markets.

Hong Kong is inevitably affected, but its financial system has continued to function well and has demonstrated a high degree of resilience, he added.

Mr Chan emphasised that Hong Kong will continue to make the best use of its strengths as an offshore renminbi centre to further enhance renminbi liquidity and support and drive the use of renminbi by businesses and investors in the financing of infrastructure projects and other related activities in the Belt & Road region.

He explained that Hong Kong will also pursue the securitisation of infrastructure loans in order to facilitate private capital flow into mature and well-functioning infrastructure projects with stable cash flow.

Mr Chan stated that the implementation of the National Security Law has not only quickly restored the social stability of Hong Kong, but also propelled the forward development of Hong Kong under "one country, two systems".

It has also laid a solid foundation for Hong Kong's economic and financial development, he added.

Mr Chan stressed that Hong Kong will continue to leverage its advantage of "one country, two systems", enhance its core competitiveness and foster closer co-operation with various ministries to better serve the country in its reform and opening up, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development and the Belt & Road Initiative.

He expressed gratitude to the central government for its full support in Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work and the provision of manpower and resources in helping Hong Kong to fight against the epidemic.

Noting that I&T and local research and development outcomes have helped Hong Kong to meet livelihood needs during the epidemic, Mr Yau said Hong Kong is prepared to share related experiences with Belt & Road countries and regions.

He added that an I&T Inventions Experience Sharing & Business Promotion Platform has been put in place.

Mr Yau also said that Hong Kong will launch a Mainland Enterprises Partnership Networking & Exchange Programme, in which exchanges and networking sessions will be set up for Mainland businesses and Hong Kong professionals for forging collaboration.