Han fires first salvo in boosting trade ties with HK
Mayor aims to boost produce exports to HK
With a package of trade deals worth more than NT$2.3 billion ($74.6 million, or HK$585 million) in the basket, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu has fired the first shot in promoting trade ties with Hong Kong and taking cross-Straits economic relations to a new level.
Han — a rising star in Taiwan’s Kuomintang party — arrived in the special administrative region on Friday heading a delegation of 30 officials and businessmen from Kaohsiung at the start of a weeklong tour of the region, which will also take him to the Macao Special Administrative Region, Shenzhen in Guangdong province and Xiamen in Fujian province.
Along with Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, Han witnessed the signing of seven trade deals covering agricultural and fishery products between the Hong Kong Chinese Importers and Exporters Association and mainland companies, and two business groups from the southern Taiwan coastal city at a trade promotion event in Hong Kong on Friday.
The terms of the agreements range from one to four years, as part of Han’s efforts to seek bigger markets for Kaohsiung’s agricultural, fishery and processed goods.
During his one-day stay in the city, Han held separate meetings with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Wang Zhimin, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
During the meeting, Wang briefed Han on the great achievements made by Hong Kong since its return to the motherland 21 years ago.
Han also met Sino Group Chairman Robert Ng Chee-siong, who helped the mayor arrange for Kaohsiung’s agricultural products to be sold at Singapore’s supermarket chains.
“Economic matters are the focus of my trip,” Han said at the promotion event, describing the tour as “a journey of economic cooperation and emotion exchange”.
“The major task of this trip is to meet new friends, do business and urge more Hong Kong people to visit and invest in Kaohsiung,” he said.
Han said he was “quite shocked” when Lam told him that nearly a quarter of Hong Kong’s imports of
agricultural and fishery products come from Japan, whereas those from Taiwan account for just 3.6 percent. He’s confident that Taiwan can lift the amount to 10 and even 12 percent.
“This is a rather reasonable goal. It calls for concerted and unremitting efforts from Taiwan’s farming and fishing industries,” he urged.
The mayor added he was also inspired by the foresight of Hong Kong’s top officials in making technology and innovation the new growth engine for the city’s economy.
“As mayor of Kaohsiung, there’s a lot to be learned in taking a leaf from Hong Kong,” he said.
Han, who took office in December last year, hoped the trip would herald closer ties between Hong Kong and Kaohsiung as the two cities gear up for more frequent exchanges.
“Having lied dormant for decades, Kaohsiung has the strength and resources that have yet to be given full play. Now, the rise of the ‘sleeping giant’ is on the horizon. We’re confident that the city will become Taiwan’s economic center, just like what New York means to the United States and what Shanghai is to the Chinese mainland,” he said.
Kaohsiung, with a population of 2.8 million, is Taiwan’s third-largest city.