“One Belt, One Road” and
“Greater Bay Area” are mega projects that may sound like abstract slogans to some, but others are starting to embrace the concepts. Thousands of miles away, in the volatile Middle East, Israel is now actively looking for opportunities in China, including the
belt and road initiative, we discovered during a recent trip to the country arranged by its diplomatic mission in Hong Kong.
Israel, steeped in religious history and mired in turbulent, modern-day geopolitics, may be a remote and exotic destination for many Hongkongers, but two of the city’s leaders have visited it for an entirely different reason – to learn from its high-tech development experience.
Tung Chee-hwa was there in 1999 on a trip that he said had inspired him to better develop policies for a high value-added economy. And, 16 years later, in 2015, Leung Chun-ying made his
pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the middle of his lengthy battle with a divided Legislative Council to secure funding for his pet project at the time – setting up a new
Innovation and Technology Bureau.
Unfortunately, Tung’s vision met a premature end with
his resignation in the middle of his second term. For Leung, although the new bureau was eventually born in late 2015, there’s still a long way to go before the city can claim any significant hi-tech achievement in the current political and social environment. Neighbouring Shenzhen, meanwhile, has taken up the role of southern China’s “Silicon Valley”.
That begs the question: does Hong Kong have what it takes to be transformed into an innovation hub? It remained unanswered throughout our short stay in Israel, where a regular topic in meetings with various start-ups, academics and officials was how Israel could further strengthen economic ties to benefit both sides. That included its participation in Beijing’s belt and road initiative to revive land and maritime trade along the old Silk Route, and in the
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a founding member.
Meanwhile, Chinese capital and investment has been pouring in over the years. A new port in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod is being built by a Chinese company in a project seen as a big push for the “New Silk Road”. In Tel Aviv, we were introduced to a Chinese company that provides incubation facilities to qualified start-ups aiming for the Chinese market. Then we were told that the majority shareholder in one of the “must buy” skincare brands for many tourists, including those from China, was Shanghai-based Fuson, one of China’s biggest international conglomerates.
