Hong Kong is positioning itself as a gateway for mainland Chinese firms to explore untapped markets in the Middle East, says Irina Fan Yuen-yee, director of research at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC)
China Daily reports that she made the remarks at a media sharing session ahead of a Middle East visit by a Hong Kong delegation led by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.
Fan highlighted Hong Kong’s deepening economic ties with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members Qatar and Kuwait – which the delegation is set to visit – as both countries are actively diversifying their respective economies beyond oil and gas.
She added that factors such as US tariff policies, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, are reshaping global trade dynamics and creating geopolitical tensions that are leading Middle Eastern countries to pivot their trade focus towards the Asian market.
Edmund Lo Chung-hei, an economist of the Asian and emerging markets research team at the HKTDC, underscored Hong Kong’s competitive edge in facilitating such a shift. “China is the primary trading partner for most GCC nations,” he said, “and [Hong Kong] is the world’s largest offshore renminbi hub.”
[See more: Macao takes part in the Middle East’s biggest travel trade show]
His colleague, HKTDC economist Henry Cheung Ka-hei, pointed out that there were also opportunities in the Middle East for Hong Kong’s professional services firms, from business consultancies to green finance companies.
“While mainland firms often lead in large-scale infrastructure projects due to their cost competitiveness, Hong Kong’s value lies in its high-end professional services,” he said.
A survey conducted by the HKTDC in August, polling 457 companies based in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, found that 90 percent of them planned to go global within the next one to three years – and that 77 percent of them looked to Hong Kong as a gateway for entering the international market.
A similar survey conducted in 2023 on companies based in the Greater Bay Area revealed comparable results, suggesting that demand for Hong Kong’s cross-border business support services will increase.
Fan hopes that “Just as Hong Kong became a gateway to ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations],” so it can “replicate this success in the Middle East.”
