LEE TRIP ‘TO FORGE CLOSER TIES WITH ASEAN MEMBERS’
Chief executive will lead high-powered team of top officials and business leaders on July tour of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, sources say
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu will lead a high-level delegation to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in late July to forge closer ties with Asean members, the Post has learned.
His team would include top officials and dozens of representatives from finance, technology and professional services, multiple sources familiar with the trip told the Post yesterday.
One insider said: “Forging closer and meaningful ties with countries in the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] bloc is seen as very important in Hong Kong’s post-pandemic economy.
“These three destinations are strong members of the bloc with huge potential to deepen collaborations.”
Sending a delegation to the three countries could also help Hong Kong to mitigate geopolitical risks amid the rivalry between China and the United States, analysts said.
According to sources, the group would visit Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta during the last week of July, with Hong Kong officials working to set up meetings between Lee and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as well as Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Lee would also use the trip to visit businesses and establish greater collaboration in fields such as innovation and technology (I&T), one insider said.
The insider added that one goal of the delegation was to link businesses in the three locations to their counterparts in the Greater Bay Area, referring to Beijing’s initiative to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland cities into an economic powerhouse.
Lee used his first overseas trip as Hong Kong’s leader last year to visit another Asean member, heading to Bangkok in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.
Earlier this year he led a highlevel delegation to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, describing the trip as “fruitful” after setting up 13 non-binding agreements involving enterprises and business chambers. He later visited several mainland cities.
Asean countries collectively accounted for Hong Kong’s second-largest trading partner in 2022, with total merchandise trade between the two reaching HK$1,294.4 billion and accounting for 13.7 per cent of the city’s global merchandise trade.
Singapore represented Hong Kong’s fourth-largest trading partner, while Malaysia and Indonesia ranked ninth and 23rd, respectively.
Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, said he believed the three locations were chosen because they had strong economies, large Chinese communities and were home to highly prized industries.
“Malaysia has a lot of enterprises that specialise in semiconductors and electronic assembly,” he said. “Semiconductors account for 33 per cent of Hong Kong’s total trade … It is important for the city to foster a closer relationship with Malaysia.”
The country supplies an estimated 13 per cent of demand for packaging and testing. However, experts have said Malaysia is facing challenges as more global investments choose to set up chip facilities outside the mainland to mitigate geopolitical risks.
Ng, however, said he saw little room for collaboration between Singapore and Hong Kong, as competition between the two had become more intense in recent years.
Professor Terence Chong Taileung, executive director of Chinese University’s Lau Chor Tak Institute of Global Economics and Finance, said encouraging Indonesian companies to list in Hong Kong could help attract investment from the Middle East, given Indonesia was the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
The Asean bloc was among the fastest-growing regions in the world last year, with Indonesia’s economy expanding 5.31 per cent from 2021. The country is also the world’s largest producer of nickel, a key element in electric cars and batteries, an area expected to become crucial in driving a green economic transition.
Tony Ho, director of the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said local businesses were set to benefit from closer economic ties with the country, which has a population of 280 million, as well as good agricultural and food technology prospects.
The bloc could also help cut the risks facing Hong Kong’s re-export businesses brought about by geopolitical tensions, he said. “We cannot just rely on trade with Western countries due to the possibilities of being affected by sanctions or taxes.”
Economist Simon Lee Siu-po, an honorary fellow at Chinese University’s Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, argued Lee’s delegation should visit other major economies in the association, namely Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
During a visit to Dubai in February, Lee revealed he planned to visit several Asean countries, but had stopped short of outlining which ones. At the time, he expressed a wish to bolster and leverage Hong Kong’s relationship with the bloc to garner more support for the city to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world’s largest free-trade deal.
The partnership connects 15 Asia-Pacific countries including Asean members. All are major trading partners of Hong Kong and accounted for more than 70 per cent of its total merchandise trade last year, and about half of the city’s trade in services and investments in 2020.
Separately, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said he planned to visit Singapore today to promote collaboration and exchange between Hong Kong and the city state on the I&T front.
He will meet officials and state agencies to discuss methods of building smart government and promoting digital transformation. The sessions will also cover topics such as government support for research and development in science and technology, as well as growing industries and enterprise transformation.
Sun will visit a local university and research facilities, in addition to speaking at a lunch with local I&T industry leaders.
We cannot just rely on trade with Western countries due to the possibilities of ... sanctions or taxes
TONY HO, DIRECTOR OF THE INDONESIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN HONG KONG