City’s leader takes delegation on visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE to enhance economic links

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (left) meets the president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser (center), at the LEAP 2023 technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb 6. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

John Lee Ka-chiu, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and an HKSAR government and business delegation pushed ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to a new level of collaboration. 

Accomplishments during their visit to the two countries, from Feb 5-11, included Hong Kong’s negotiations on investment protection and promotion pacts, agreement on deals between Hong Kong and Saudi and UAE partners, and promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In Saudi Arabia, Lee met with local leaders, visited enterprises and attended international forums and large-scale exchange activities to introduce Hong Kong’s developments, opportunities and unique advantages.

Lee’s delegation consisted of senior HKSAR government officials and 30 high-level representatives from various sectors. 

After arriving in the Middle East, Lee said that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were picked for his first overseas trip this year because of those countries’ visions and blueprints in finance, innovation and technology, as well as infrastructure and logistics.

Lee said that President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia in December established a good foundation for the Hong Kong delegation’s tour to promote the city and deepen Middle Eastern countries’ understanding of Hong Kong.

On Feb 5, while attending the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-Hong Kong Investment Forum in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, Lee announced that Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia will launch formal negotiations on an investment promotion and protection agreement after productive exploratory discussions between the two sides.

During the forum, Lee and Khalid Al-Falih, the Saudi minister of investment, witnessed the signing of six memorandums of understanding or letters of intent between Hong Kong and Saudi Arabian enterprises or organizations covering areas such as finance, innovative technology, transportation and energy.

Among them was an MoU signed by Nesma Holding, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest private conglomerates, and Hong Kong’s leading homegrown asset management company, Templewater, along with its two subsidiaries, Bravo Transport and Wisdom Motor.

Templewater and Nesma will work together to transform commercial fleets in the Middle East and North Africa through the use of zero-emission vehicles, Cliff Zhang, chairman and CEO of Templewater, told China Daily.

About 300 representatives of local authorities and business leaders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hong Kong SAR gathered on Feb 5 at the forum to explore prospects for collaboration in trade, finance, technology and art and culture.

Addressing the forum, Lee said that Hong Kong has much to offer in trade and investment as well as in the financial and professional services sectors and infrastructure development. Bilateral trade in goods between the HKSAR and members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf reached $1.7 billion in 2021, he said.

On Feb 6, Lee attended the LEAP 2023 technology conference, one of the biggest such events held in the Middle East and North Africa region. He got down to business with his “Hello, Hong Kong” campaign in Riyadh, saying “a critical gateway to the Belt and Road Initiative was back”. 

He talked with Saudi representatives including Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha, and CEO of Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones Muteb Alqani. 

Lee noted the HKSAR government’s efforts in building up the city’s advantages in the tech sphere and invited global technology enterprises to establish or expand their businesses in Hong Kong.

He said “the world’s largest offshore renminbi business hub” provides capital for BRI countries, economies, companies and projects. 

“Alongside capital, we also serve as a bridge enabling the flow of talented knowledge between the mainland and the world at large. Capitalizing on our solid foundation and superb connectivity, Hong Kong is on the fast track to becoming an international innovation and technology hub,” he said.

Lee also noted that Hong Kong is home to five of the top 100 universities in the world even if it is “only a city of 1,100 square kilometers”.

Startups in the SAR had also soared from 1,000 in 2014 to some 4,000 last year with 10 unicorns (companies with a valuation of $1 billion each) under its belt, according to the chief executive. He also said venture capital surged from $154 million in 2014 to $5.3 billion in 2021, and the city is a leading fundraising hub for biotechnology companies. 

The SAR government recently established the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, targeting companies and individuals in life and health technology, artificial intelligence, data science, financial technology, advanced manufacturing and new energy technology. 

Lee’s delegation also met Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser, in a bid to persuade Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco to list in the Asian financial center. Moreover, he visited an exhibition showing the futuristic design of the Neom smart city project, which is part of the Saudi government’s Vision 2030. 

In Dubai, the Hong Kong delegation signed three pacts at the UAE-Hong Kong Business Forum and Lunar New Year Gala Dinner in Dubai on Feb 8.

Lee extended invitations for the UAE to invest, set up family offices and bring their business to the city and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which is home to a population of 84 million people, and generates GDP of $1.3 trillion.

The UAE is Hong Kong’s largest trading partner in the Middle East. In 2021, about 9.5 percent of the goods traded between the UAE and the Chinese mainland passed through Hong Kong.

Lee said that collaboration could also be deepened by leveraging Hong Kong’s strengths as the largest offshore renminbi center and a fintech hub. 

Hong Kong architecture firm Ho & Partners Architects together with Negawatt, a Hong Kong-based property technology firm, signed a memorandum in Dubai with Masdar City, a smart city development in Abu Dhabi and a subsidiary of Emirati state-owned Mubadala Development Company; and Catalyst, a venture capital and incubator platform co-founded by Masdar City and British Petroleum.

Hong Kong architect Nicholas Ho Lik-chi, chair of Ho & Partners Architects, said the cooperation was monumental and showed good timing as the UAE project needs exactly what the firm can offer. 

Lee and delegation also visited the China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park in Abu Dhabi. 

Liu Xiaohan and Oasis Hu contributed to this report. 

Contact the writers at stushadow@chinadailyhk.com