Hong Kong and Macao signed 30 cooperation deals with East China’s Shandong province at the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong-Macao-Shandong Week on Monday.
The event kicked off a five-day promotion campaign that will see the province and two special administrative regions sign another 101 agreements.
Sixty-nine of the 131 agreements are for investment projects worth a total $10.27 billion, covering areas of mutual interest of all three governments, including the digital economy, energy transition, smart manufacturing, modern agriculture, and culture and tourism.
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Government departments responsible for finance and agriculture as well as companies in industries such as real estate and new energy are involved in the agreements.
As an international financial, shipping and trade center with a long history of a free market economy and a high degree of openness, Hong Kong has world-class advantages, said Leung Chun-ying, a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top political advisory body. Meanwhile, Shandong is an economic powerhouse with the third largest GDP in China and a population of over 100 million, he said.
“As long as entrepreneurs from the two recognize each other’s strengths and development needs, they can certainly push their cooperation to new heights,” Leung added.
The deals underscore the deepening cooperation between Hong Kong and the coastal province. In February this year, the central government expanded the list of mainland cities whose residents can apply for individual travel to Hong Kong, with the tourist city of Qingdao in Shandong becoming one of the new additions, following Shandong’s capital, Jinan.
In 2023, Shandong saw the establishment of 964 enterprises backed by Hong Kong investors, with actual utilization of Hong Kong capital reaching $12.35 billion, accounting for more than 70 percent of the province’s total utilized investment from outside the mainland.
Hong Kong is an important financing platform for Shandong’s enterprises. As of the first quarter of 2024, 68 Shandong companies were listed in the city, making up half of the province’s total number of overseas-listed firms.
In 2023, the trade between the two reached 65.5 billion yuan ($9.04 billion), a year-on-year increase of more than 40 percent.
While speaking of Hong Kong’s unique advantages under “one country, two systems” in professional services and attracting a diverse pool of global talents, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in his video address, “We will continue to play the role of a superconnector and ‘super value-adder’, helping mainland enterprises go global, while also attracting more foreign investment into the country.”
Lin Wu, Shandong’s Party secretary, said cultural exchange has also emerged as an area for cooperation between Hong Kong and Shandong, with the former making positive contributions in promoting cultural exchange between China and the West, while the latter being an important birthplace of Chinese civilization and the origin of Confucian culture.
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Following the opening ceremony, Shandong will hold a series of promotional events in Hong Kong and Macao. There will also be activities organized to facilitate cooperation and exchanges among young entrepreneurs and professionals from the three sides.
On Thursday, a 900-square-meter promotion center will open in Macao, featuring five exhibition halls that showcase over 1,000 categories of agricultural products from Shandong.
A cultural heritage exhibition is set to kick off on Wednesday at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre. The display, which will run about four months, will feature 201 Shandong cultural relics, 24 of which are national first-class artifacts. This marks the first time since 2013 that Shandong has initiated such a jointly organized exhibition outside the mainland.
Contact the writer at irisli@chinadailyhk.com
