A deep pool of talent and a high level of sophistication in financial and legal services are just two advantages that make Hong Kong an ideal gateway for businesses to expand in Southeast Asia as well as in the Middle East, analysts said at a forum on Thursday.
These factors should foster greater cooperation between Hong Kong and these two regions, which are among the world’s fastest-growing, they said during the Belt and Road Summit at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
“Hong Kong has distinctive advantages,” said Winnie Fan, deputy general manager of global corporate banking at Bank of China (Hong Kong). “It is recognised for having a world-class business environment with simple and low taxation, a sound legal system, free flow of capital and efficient financial structure, multiple cross-border channels and also the largest and most important global offshore [yuan] business hub.”
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Hong Kong’s dispute-settlement mechanism provides a model that is worth emulating in Indonesia as Southeast Asia‘s largest economy seeks to develop its family-office and social-enterprise segments, said Cahyo R Muzhar, director general of legal administrative affairs with the country’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
In the Philippines, where the need for infrastructure development is great, Hong Kong’s expertise on impact investing and on environmental, social and governance issues could make a lot of difference, said Andrew Gan, director at the Philippine Stock Exchange.
A minister from Malaysia said joint research programmes or university consortiums among higher-learning institutions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Hong Kong could yield benefits.
“We should be working on creating institutions for technical education for our regions,” said Tengku Zafrul Aziz, minister for investment, trade and industry in Malaysia. “Much has been done, and more is required. This is something that the belt and road can consider. The apparent shift to the green transition is welcomed, but the contribution to the soft infrastructure, the human capital of the partner nations, will be doubly so.”
In the Middle East, Qatar is hoping to welcome more Chinese companies to set up operations, said Laila Al-Jefairi, director of the professional services sector at the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).
Hong Kong’s advantages in taxation, its legal system and capital markets make it a good partner for Asean and Middle East countries, according to Winnie Fan, a deputy general manager at Bank of China (Hong Kong). Photo: Edmond So alt=Hong Kong’s advantages in taxation, its legal system and capital markets make it a good partner for Asean and Middle East countries, according to Winnie Fan, a deputy general manager at Bank of China (Hong Kong). Photo: Edmond So>
“As of today, we have more than 2,200 companies that are registered in the QFC, and 18 of them are Chinese companies,” she said. “We hope to see this number increasing in the near future. We need to see more Chinese companies come to Qatar, and I want to assure you that the culture is the same … in the sense that we need to build personal relationships and then business relationships and then trust. These factors are crucial to doing business in Qatar.”
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia aims to expand its hotel sector to 800,000 keys by 2030, which is an opportunity for Asian hospitality companies, Tareq Alshaghrood, general manager of investment planning and attraction at the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, said at the International Hospitality Forum Asia on Wednesday.
“We are looking at everything from accommodation [to] real estate development, mixed-use development, tourism services such as tour operators, F&B [food and beverage] and retail,” he said on the sidelines of the event, held from Monday to Wednesday at the Regent Hong Kong in Tsim Sha Tsui. “We believe there are a lot of great success stories in China that we would like to see in Saudi Arabia, to increase and enhance our offering.”
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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