Hong Kong-Asean trade pact will open doors to richer, deeper relations
Reuben Mondejar and Rafael Nite say the city should not pass up the opportunities that come with a stronger bond
In the wake of the Occupy protests, Hong Kong is in dire need of a means to reinvent itself, and it may be able to do this by leveraging its long-standing relationship with Southeast Asia, a relationship that it has overlooked of late.
Negotiations for a free trade agreement between Hong Kong and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been ongoing since a first round took place last July. These talks began four years after mainland China established its own free trade agreement with Asean, with the latter opting to negotiate a separate deal with Hong Kong. The intention is for Hong Kong and Asean to close a deal next year.
The potential benefits of a free trade agreement are many. The 10 Asean states have an aggregate gross domestic product of US$2.4 trillion, as well as total trade volume amounting to US$2.5 trillion.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong presents Southeast Asia with the advantage of being a major international gateway to mainland China, particularly the Pearl River Delta - a market of 65 million people, most of them situated in southern China.
Moreover, Hong Kong offers Asean an ideal locale to do business - many multinational and mainland Chinese companies have set up shop in the region, which offers strengths in logistics, finance, shipping, services and trade - all made stable with the presence of a sound basic law system as well as sophisticated infrastructure.
Hong Kong and Southeast Asia have enjoyed a strong bond throughout most of their respective histories. The two regions have a rich history of dealings not only in business, but also cultural exchanges, knowledge transfer, and even migration of diaspora and workforce, going back hundreds of years.
Hong Kong employs many thousands of Southeast Asian migrant workers, and continues to play a significant role in the region's history and political movements, despite the SAR's relative neutrality. Key revolutionary figures of several Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh and the Philippines' Emilio Aguinaldo and Jose Rizal, have all taken up indirect refuge or sought asylum in Hong Kong at some point, as has, in more recent times, Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra.