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More than 10 enterprises, including pharmaceutical and logistics firms, are in talks with Hong Kong authorities to set up a presence at the Northern Metropolis megaproject, according to the city’s investment promoter. In an interview on Thursday, InvestHK Director-General Alpha Lau Hai-suen said the interested enterprises included those from South Korea and Europe, as well as one from the Middle East with a mainland Chinese capital background. “The firms in discussion [with the authorities to establish operations] are diverse in sectors, spanning large-scale pharmaceutical enterprises, the automotive supply chain, and even companies involved in satellite technology,” she said on the sidelines of the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. She said some enterprises had initially raised concerns about Hong Kong’s insufficient land supply, but she noted the Northern Metropolis was highly favourable for industrial development. The megaproject aims to develop 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) into an economic growth engine and housing hub in the northern New Territories. Lau also highlighted Hong Kong’s potential to help international enterprises “go global” and assist them in entering the mainland market. She cited Central Asia as an example, noting that some countries in the region had rich resources in terms of gold and farm products. Hong Kong could facilitate collaboration between the mainland and those countries, allowing them to utilise mainland resources to boost productivity and thereby increase their opportunities for global trade, she said. Lau added that the current geopolitical tensions were prompting companies to seek stability and reliability in their cooperation partners, which in turn significantly increased the opportunities for collaboration between Central Asia and China, including Hong Kong. InvestHK was part of a Hong Kong business delegation led by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu for the 8th China International Import Expo to promote the city’s role as a global business connector. Arthur Lam, head of investment promotion with InvestHK’s Go Global Unit, echoed Lau’s comments. He said that numerous well-established companies in the Yangtze River Delta region, particularly those in advanced manufacturing and logistics, had the potential to list in Hong Kong. Discussing the advantages of utilising Hong Kong as a platform to expand internationally, representatives from two mainland companies supported by InvestHK said it was more convenient to use the city as a platform. Wang Chaoyou, chairman of Dongchao Technology, said the documents required to go global in Hong Kong were significantly less cumbersome compared with the mainland. “The largest cost for a company is time, not money,” he said. He elaborated that if his business had tried to expand to different countries from the mainland, he would need to time-consumingly prepare different sets of documents for each location. Finance company FinVolution Group said that embarking on a go-global strategy often felt similar to navigating an unfamiliar road, but Hong Kong could help. “Hong Kong possesses rich experience in communicating and dealing with mature economies, including the UK and Australia, which can be invaluable to our business,” Wang Yuxiang, the company’s chief operating officer, said. He added that the city was uniquely positioned to streamline communication processes between his company and other places, helping it effectively connect to the wider world. Wang said that Hong Kong had a great deal of potential, primarily because of its mature financial system. He also expressed hope that he could expand his business in Hong Kong in the future.
