Southeast Asia, Middle East eye deeper business ties with Hong Kong

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Belt and Road Summit: a deep talent pool and financial and legal acumen make the city an ideal partner for development in the two regions

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John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, appears during the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong on September 11, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

Cheryl Arcibal

Published: 9:00am, 13 Sep 2024

A deep pool of talent and a high level of sophistication in financial and legal services are just two advantages that make Hong Kong an ideal gateway for businesses to expand in Southeast Asia as well as in the Middle East, analysts said at a forum on Thursday.

These factors should foster greater cooperation between Hong Kong and these two regions, which are among the world’s fastest-growing, they said during the Belt and Road Summit at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“Hong Kong has distinctive advantages,” said Winnie Fan, deputy general manager of global corporate banking at Bank of China (Hong Kong). “It is recognised for having a world-class business environment with simple and low taxation, a sound legal system, free flow of capital and efficient financial structure, multiple cross-border channels and also the largest and most important global offshore [yuan] business hub.”

Hong Kong’s dispute-settlement mechanism provides a model that is worth emulating in Indonesia as Southeast Asia’s largest economy seeks to develop its family-office and social-enterprise segments, said Cahyo R Muzhar, director general of legal administrative affairs with the country’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

In the Philippines, where the need for infrastructure development is great, Hong Kong’s expertise on impact investing and on environmental, social and governance issues could make a lot of difference, said Andrew Gan, director at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

A minister from Malaysia said joint research programmes or university consortiums among higher-learning institutions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Hong Kong could yield benefits.