Hong Kong companies failing to take advantage of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy, experts tell annual forum
Hong Kong companies are failing to take advantage of China’s “One Belt, One Road” policy, local business leaders say, adding the city is perfectly placed to benefit.
The initiative, begun by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2013, was designed to broaden Chinese trade and exports through a vast international programme of new developments.
In March, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said Hong Kong had a key role to play in the new programme.
But speaking at the South China Morning Post‘s China Conference on Monday,China Everbright Limited CEO Chen Shuang said Hong Kong businesses could be taking more advantage of the strategy.
“There’s a lot of opportunities there … and I believe Hong Kong is in a very good place,” he said.
“[But] in recent days One Belt, One Road is just a buzzword in Hong Kong and currently I think people are just doing the talking instead of doing material things for the initiative.”
Meng said Hong Kong companies needed to start thinking about their profits and how they could benefit.
Hony Capital chief executive officer John Zhao said Hong Kong had unique talents to provide to One Belt, One Road.
“In the mainland we have big companies but we don’t have the talents, we don’t have the specialities,” he said.
“Hong Kong has been an international city for many years and I think Hong Kong can help us.”
Federation of Hong Kong Industries deputy chairman Jimmy Kwok Chun-wah said local companies needed to work hard to take advantage of the programme.
“We have 30 years’ experience of going from Hong Kong into China so [moving overseas] would be the same,” he said.
“We know the logistics of how to shift, one by one, from Hong Kong to the PRC.”
Kwok said the mainland government needed to provide more specifics to local companies so they could capitalise on the new initiative.
“Now it’s just a call for One Belt, One Road, we don’t have any industrial parks being established or any national department telling us ‘OK, now we have national support in this area’,” he said.
Chief Executive of China Taiping Insurance (HK) Company Limited Li Qing Hua suggested companies themselves should fully understand the risks before going global.
“Going global is very hard, especially infrastructure investment is a very long process, companies need to be aware of the potential politics, resources, transportation and construction risks beforehand,” he said.
Chen Shuang, Chief Executive of China Everbright Ltd. expected more financial products to be created to meet the increasing needs of for the yuan in international transactions.
“Hong Kong should take advantage of its advanced financial service, information network and human resources,” Chen said. “Not on a talking stage, Hong Kong should really participate and see what they can do.”
Additional reporting by Summer Zhen.