CITY LOOKS TO CASH IN ON CULTURE, INNOVATION

Local representatives to Apec business meeting this week plan to showcase Hong Kong as more than just a hub for international finance

Hong Kong’s representatives to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) business advisory council plan to use the platform to showcase the city as more than just a finance hub.

The city will host a meeting of the Apec Business Advisory Council (ABAC) from today to Thursday. Some 200 delegates from across the region, as well as the mainland and the United States, will be in Hong Kong for the first time since 2015.

“Besides seeing Hong Kong as a financing centre, we hope that [Apec delegates] will have a different view of the city,” said Nisa Leung, managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners and one of Hong Kong’s representatives to ABAC.

Culture, innovation and sustainability were some of the areas that would be highlighted, she added.

Towards this end, the Hong Kong government announced a raft of innovation and technology initiatives in the budget, with funding schemes to foster a vibrant and diversified economy, pledging continued support for turning the city into a global tech hub.

The government committed HK$24 billion to boost the techdriven economy and extended the Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme to 2027 in this year’s budget.

Established in 1996, the ABAC is an advisory body which offers advice to economic leaders, ministers and senior government officials from Apec, an intergovernmental organisation intended to promote free trade among its 21 members in the Asia-Pacific region, plus China and the United States.

ABAC members are appointed by their respective economic leaders and represent a range of business sectors, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The council comprises up to three members of the private sector from each economy, and meets four times a year. The two other ABAC representatives from Hong Kong are Marjorie Yang, chairwoman of Esquel Group, and Mary Huen Wai-yi, CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong.

“This is a very good opportunity to welcome our good friends to Hong Kong, to let them have a better understanding and to make their own decision about Hong Kong,” Yang said.

“This is a time for the whole of Asia-Pacific to work together to get ourselves out of a hole. The economy is pretty fragile, and if we can work together to push for regional economic development, this would be best.”

The theme of the ABAC this year is “people, business, prosperity”, which aims to guide the council’s work on key issues such as trade and investment facilitation, digital transformation, sustainability and inclusion, according to a spokesman for the Trade and Industry Department.

“Much work in ABAC resonates with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s policy priorities and in fact, Hong Kong has a lot of good stories to tell,” the spokesman said.

“In addition to the ABAC meetings, delegates will be given the opportunity to see for themselves the development of our city on various fronts, including logistics, smart healthcare, conservation and innovation and technology.”

This is a time for the whole of Asia-Pacific to work together to get ourselves out of a hole MARJORIE YANG, ESQUEL GROUP