The 10th "Belt and Road" Summit Forum in Hong Kong was held from September 10 to 11. More than 6,000 guests at home and abroad and more than 100 delegations attended the forum to discuss the development opportunities in various aspects such as commerce, investment, innovation and green development brought about by the joint construction of the "Belt and Road". This forum is themed "Cooperation seeks change and builds the future together", adding new elements such as key markets, hot projects and building a sustainable development platform, creating more cooperation opportunities for enterprises, local professional service industries and even private exchanges. During the forum, 50 memorandums of cooperation between the government and enterprises were facilitated, setting a record high, highlighting Hong Kong's role as a functional platform for jointly building the "Belt and Road".

Ten years of hard work have yielded fruits

"Isn't it fun to have friends coming from afar?" At the opening ceremony of the forum, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Li Jiachao cited Chinese ancient words to welcome the guests.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has held the Hong Kong "Belt and Road" Summit Forum since 2016. Over the past 10 years, more than 45,000 people have participated in the forum, showing more than 2,800 projects, building a common vision through cooperation and connectivity, and practicing the core values ​​of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative.

Today, the Hong Kong "Belt and Road" Summit Forum has become the largest and most important commercial and investment platform to promote cooperation between Hong Kong, mainland and overseas enterprises in the "Belt and Road" project. Li Jiachao said that the Hong Kong SAR government has expanded Hong Kong's international trade network at full speed. He has visited 12 countries jointly built the "Belt and Road" in the past three years and witnessed that Hong Kong and related economies reached more than 160 memorandums of cooperation, cooperation agreements and results. At present, Hong Kong has signed free trade agreements with 14 countries jointly built the "Belt and Road", investment agreements with about 20 economies jointly built the "Belt and Road", and comprehensive double taxation agreements with 37 tax jurisdictions of the "Belt and Road".

For countries and regions jointly building the "Belt and Road" initiative, Hong Kong is one of the most active investors. In 2023, Hong Kong's direct investment in countries that jointly built the "Belt and Road" reached US$133 billion, with an investment amount of 3.6 times that of 2013, and the investment growth rate was 4 times that of Hong Kong's overall foreign investment, indicating that global capital gathered in Hong Kong is accelerating its embrace of the development opportunities of the "Belt and Road". In 2024, the commodity trade volume between Hong Kong and countries jointly built the "Belt and Road" exceeded US$276 billion, an increase of about 80% from 2013, which is three times the increase in Hong Kong's foreign commodity trade volume during the same period.

As of the end of 2024, there have been 1,400 enterprises from countries and regions in Hong Kong from jointly building the "Belt and Road" initiative, of which 100 have been listed. Xu Zhengyu, Secretary for Financial Affairs and Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said in an interview with our reporter that what attracts companies to go public is not only the amount of IPO (initial public offering) in Hong Kong, but also the strong refinancing capabilities. Since the beginning of this year, the amount of funds raised by Hong Kong IPO has exceeded HK$130 billion and the amount of refinancing exceeded HK$340 billion.

Relying on the motherland's momentum

Taking advantage of the unique advantages of "backing to the motherland and connecting the world", Hong Kong continues to strengthen its role as "super contact person" and "super value-added person".

Yan Dong, Vice Minister of Commerce, said at the forum that the Ministry of Commerce will implement the Agreement II on the Revision of the CEPA Trade in Services, further expand the mainland's opening up to Hong Kong's finance, telecommunications, construction, tourism and other fields, and connect with international high-standard economic and trade rules; study and promote the joint construction of a single free trade zone in the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao; support Hong Kong to sign more free trade agreements and investment agreements with foreign trade, join the RCEP as soon as possible, and further expand the foreign economic and trade network. At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to strengthen the "joint going global" brand, organize Hong Kong and mainland enterprises to enter more countries to jointly build the "Belt and Road" and guide Hong Kong enterprises to provide high-level professional services for foreign investment and contract engineering projects.

The current global landscape is undergoing profound changes, and Hong Kong's role in connecting global resources and connecting international markets is becoming increasingly prominent. It is an important strategic fulcrum in the process of globalization of mainland enterprises. Li Zhen, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said that as of 2024, central enterprises have deployed more than 10,000 projects and institutions in more than 180 countries and regions, with a total overseas assets of 9.6 trillion yuan, and have invested or participated in the construction of more than 200 major infrastructure such as ports, railways, and airports. Central enterprises maintain close communication with all sectors of Hong Kong: in terms of financial cooperation, they actively explore the establishment of financial centers, settlement centers and self-insurance companies in Hong Kong; in terms of professional services, they work with Hong Kong legal, accounting, consulting and other institutions to provide full-cycle services for international projects; in terms of platform construction, they establish an exclusive docking mechanism between the SAR government and the business community.

In recent years, Hong Kong has accelerated its integration into the overall national development situation, and has continuously deepened its cooperation with various provinces, further demonstrating its own hub function. Xiao Weiming, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the National Development and Reform Commission supports Hong Kong to actively participate in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and supports Hong Kong to implement the "Action Plan for the Coordinated Development of Shanghai-Hong Kong International Financial Centers", and empower and develop in a staggered manner with the Shanghai International Financial Center. Support Hong Kong to actively participate in major regional strategies such as the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation between Beijing-Hong Kong, Fujian-Hong Kong, Sichuan-Hong Kong, and other countries, and promote the realization of a benign interaction between Hong Kong's R&D and mainland manufacturing.

Unlimited opportunities for internal and external connections

In the exhibition area of ​​the 10th Belt and Road Forum in Hong Kong, various high-tech enterprises compete to show off their skills and attract guests to stop and watch.

"Resistance, 25 thousand ohms, can be started." At the booth of the brain-computer interface company - Beijing Shenwu Technology Company, the reporter experienced their intelligent wearable EEG acquisition system - the 8 wires connected to the controller were pasted on the head through conductive paste, and modules such as "take off", "land", "left" and "right" appeared on the computer screen. After determining the relevant modules in mind, the drone that was wirelessly connected to it took off and moved. Chen Xingyan, the person in charge of the booth, introduced that this technology can be used to collect brain wave indicators and analyze sign data through AI algorithms. It can be applied to multiple scenarios such as brain-controlled typing, emotional monitoring, psychological analysis, and sleep research.

In front of the booth of Chuanglian Technology, business development director Xiang Bixin introduced their electricity-free refrigeration coating materials to visitors: "After coating transformers, transformers and other equipment, the surface will cool by up to 38 degrees Celsius and the internal cooling will cool by up to 14.9 degrees Celsius." This material can be used in various equipment such as photovoltaic panels, granaries, containers, chemical storage tanks, and has been implemented in the UAE, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, my country.

In recent years, the SAR government has actively promoted Hong Kong's development into an international innovation and science center, deepened the linkage and cooperation between government, industry, academia, research and investment, and attracted many mainland enterprises to set up R&D centers in Hong Kong to promote the global development of products and technologies. In the latest "2025 Global Innovation Index" released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" cluster ranked first in the world for the first time, reflecting that the innovation capabilities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have been highly recognized internationally.

In his special speech on the topic of "Promoting pragmatic trade cooperation and promoting regional partnerships", Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Financial Secretary Chan Mo-po said that for economies along the "Belt and Road" and southern countries around the world, Hong Kong and the Mainland provide diversified digital solutions covering financial technology, smart healthcare, cloud computing, 6G and digital city management.

In the Forbidden City Cultural Museum in Hong Kong, the first exhibition in Hong Kong history focusing on Islamic culture - the "Sky Square Blanket" was held at the same time as the Hong Kong "Belt and Road" Summit Forum. "Did you see that the pattern of symmetrical dragons on this Persian carpet was proof of the spread of Chinese art along the Silk Road at that time." Wu Zhihua, director of the Forbidden City Cultural Museum in Hong Kong, explained to visitors the long history of the "Belt and Road" culture.

Behind the exhibition is the continuous strengthening of economic and trade ties between Hong Kong and the Middle East. The Hong Kong SAR government has successfully issued Islamic bonds three times, showing the diversity and feasibility of the Hong Kong bond market as a financing platform for Islamic regions to the world. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund jointly invested to create a fund with a target size of US$1 billion, investing in companies with links with Hong Kong and committed to expanding their business to Saudi Arabia, and promote the development of Saudi Arabia's manufacturing, renewable energy, financial technology and healthcare industries.

Southeast Asian countries are also frequent visitors to Hong Kong's "Belt and Road" Summit Forum. "Our park has introduced 90 Chinese companies last year, and more Chinese technology companies are welcome to settle in." Chen Jia (), a marketing officer from Anmeide Industrial Park in Thailand, told reporters that this is their second time to participate in the Hong Kong "Belt and Road" Summit Forum. Last year, it reached a cooperation agreement with 10 Chinese companies at the forum and moved into the park. Its business scope covers electronics, new energy vehicles, biomedicine, etc.

During the forum, the Canadian Bank of Cambodia directly established a representative office in Hong Kong, becoming a vivid case of deepening economic and trade cooperation with Hong Kong and Cambodia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "We will continue to work hard to strengthen the economic ties between Cambodia and Hong Kong through the representative office and the opportunity of the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative," said Dr. Fang Qiaosheng, Chairman of the Bank of China.

There will be times when the wind and waves are long, and the clouds sails will cross the sea. Against the backdrop of the rise of protectionism, unilateralism and anti-globalization, Hong Kong is raising the sails of openness and cooperation and working with more partners to write a new chapter in jointly building the "Belt and Road". (Economic Daily reporter Liu Liang)