By Willa Wu

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Hong Kong will offer one-stop tailor-made professional services to mainland Chinese enterprises, the city’s commerce chief has said, as a task force dedicated to helping businesses from across the border expand their overseas presence has been officially established.
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah also said that the task force, which he leads and was set up on Monday, included members from the business, legal, accounting and investment sectors to help explore new emerging markets.
“As the country shifts to high-quality development from high-speed growth, more mainland enterprises are actively expanding into overseas markets, especially in the Global South, belt and road countries and other emerging economies,” Yau said as he delivered the opening remarks at the task force’s launch ceremony.
“Such enterprises need not only capital but also proper strategies and overseas networks, while Hong Kong could play the role of providing them with confidence and guarantees when expanding globally.”
The task force was formed approximately two weeks after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his policy address that the government would establish the Task Force on Supporting Mainland Enterprises in Going Global (GoGlobal Task Force) to encourage mainland enterprises to utilise Hong Kong as a platform for expanding their businesses overseas.

With the task force, Hong Kong is expected to fully integrate into overall national development by capitalising on strategies such as the Greater Bay Area and high‑quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
The bay area is a national development blueprint to link Hong Kong with Macau and nine Guangdong cities to become a new economic powerhouse, while the belt and road draws dozens of economies in Asia, Europe and Africa into a China-centred trade network.
Yau said the task force would build a “one-stop, efficient and unprecedented” overseas expansion support platform by first coordinating and aligning the relevant policy bureaus and departments, including his, the Constitution and Mainland Affairs Bureau, InvestHK, and all economic and trade offices on the mainland.
Meanwhile, the task force will also provide tailor-made professional services through members working in chambers of commerce, legal firms, banks, and accounting and investment companies, covering the fields of tax, financing, intellectual property, as well as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters.
The government would also further expand the coverage of the economic and trade offices to emerging markets with development potential to help mainland enterprises connect and expand their business into more promising markets, Yau added.
Speaking at the same event, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po told participants that the overseas expansion of mainland enterprises – especially in the Global South to deploy their industrial and supply chains – was not only “an inevitable trend but also a necessary choice” for their continued growth.
“Many mainland medium-sized and private enterprises are actively exploring paths for overseas expansion. They are in great need of financial and professional service support, which brings numerous business opportunities to Hong Kong,” he said.
The finance chief said the task force, which is led by high-level government officials and gathering professionals from different sectors, would make the work of supporting enterprises’ overseas expansion deeper and broader.