Hong Kong and Macao Reception Hall | Fang Shunwen: Continue to promote more enterprises to participate in the "the Belt and Road" development international | Hong Kong | enterprises
Hong Kong, September 21 (Xinhua) - Before joining the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Fang Shunwen had long served in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. She joined the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council in 2010 and became its President in October 2014, leading the council to create business opportunities for Hong Kong based enterprises and promote Hong Kong's foreign trade through its global network.
How can the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council promote the post pandemic recovery of the exhibition industry? What are the new ideas for the future? How to help the "the Belt and Road" initiative and help enterprises "go out and bring in"? Fang Shunwen recently accepted an interview with China News Network's "Hong Kong and Macao Reception Hall" and answered these questions one by one.
Video: Hong Kong and Macao Reception Room | Fang Shunwen: Continue to promote more enterprises to participate in the development of the "the Belt and Road". The excerpts of the interview are as follows:
Shunwen Fang from www.chinanews.com: Since 2015, we have built a professional website of "the Belt and Road", which has more than 19 million visitors so far. Since 2016, we have held the "the Belt and Road" Summit Forum, bringing together people around the world who are interested in the "the Belt and Road", especially those looking for business opportunities. In 2017, we set up the "the Belt and Road" International Business Alliance, which has more than 170 alliance members from 46 countries and regions, who discuss cooperation opportunities every year.
In the past 10 years, we have continuously launched new platforms and organized many visiting delegations to visit ASEAN, the Middle East, and Europe. We have not only organized local enterprises, but also cooperated with the Ministry of Commerce and other mainland provinces and cities. Due to our different strengths, we can complement each other's shortcomings. Going out together for promotion will be more attractive.
Shunwen Fang from www.chinanews.com.cn: This forum is on the 10th anniversary of the proposal of jointly building the "the Belt and Road" initiative, and everyone attaches great importance to it. Nearly 6000 people from more than 70 countries and regions participated in it, which is the largest number in history, including four or five ministerial level guests. The Middle East, as the center of gravity of the "the Belt and Road" co construction countries, we hope you will know more about it.
During the forum, around 20 cooperation memorandums were signed, covering many areas, such as some Hong Kong companies signing brand cooperation agreements with representatives from the Middle East. The most important thing is that the focus of this forum is on the Middle East, so a "Middle East Special Session" has been established, attracting about 200 Middle East representatives, which is the most in history. The Middle East is the focus area of the "the Belt and Road" co construction countries. They brought about 50 Middle East development projects to Hong Kong to match, hoping for more results.
On September 13, the 8th "the Belt and Road" Summit Forum was opened at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The picture shows that the guests participating in the meeting were attracted by the clips played on the electronic screen of the "the Belt and Road" Summit Forum. Photo by Li Zhihua, journalist from China News Agency
China News Network Fang Shunwen: Let me share two. In 2018, we organized 20 college students to travel by railway from Urumqi, Xinjiang to Kazakhstan to exchange ideas with local young people. Together, we made project proposals and discussed how to promote business projects. The most impressive thing for me is that these Hong Kong university students have shown great excitement, as they have discovered that there are many areas where Hong Kong and the local community can collaborate.
Another story is that the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Li Jiachao, led more than 30 business representatives to visit the Middle East in February this year. This was organized by our Trade and Development Bureau, and everyone was amazed by Saudi Arabia's opening up and reform in the past 10 years, which has been full of opportunities and vitality. Many Hong Kong companies participating in the delegation have signed contracts with local enterprises and are currently in service. For example, those who have invested in local tourism are currently looking for places to open hotels. I think this is a good experience. To truly understand a place, we must experience the vitality, enthusiasm and participation of local people. In the future, HKTDC will continue to promote more Hong Kong enterprises to participate in the "the Belt and Road" development.
China News Network's Fang Shunwen: To hold international exhibitions and conferences, it is necessary to have a smooth flow of people. However, during the epidemic, the exhibition industry has been severely affected. However, we are pleased to see that after Hong Kong and the mainland resume customs clearance, the exhibition industry is experiencing a recovery. The Hong Kong exhibition industry is mainly focused on international exhibitions. From January to September this year, we had nearly 260000 international buyers from 180 countries and regions participating in exhibition activities, and exhibitions from other companies are also recovering. It is expected that the Hong Kong exhibition industry will recover to about 60-70% before the epidemic, and it will fully recover next year. Compared to other parts of the world, the recovery speed of Hong Kong's exhibition industry is surprisingly impressive, thanks to the support of mainland enterprises.
Recently, Fang Shunwen, President of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, gave an interview to the "Hong Kong and Macao Reception Hall" of China News Network. Photo by Chen Yongnuo, journalist from China News Network
China News Network's Fang Shunwen: The biggest challenge is that everyone is worried about whether exhibitors and buyers will come. Our approach is to search for more high-value exhibitors and buyers through the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council's 50 offices worldwide, and invite them to participate in the exhibition in Hong Kong. After they arrive, they are most eager to do business, so we have targeted efforts in "trade matching", especially for some important buyers. We will inquire about their needs in advance, help them find suitable exhibitors in advance, and the response is very good.
The SAR government also strongly supports us. Starting from July this year, we launched the HKD 1.4 billion "Exhibition Funding Scheme" to encourage more international conferences and exhibition activities to be held in Hong Kong.
During the epidemic, no one is allowed to travel. In this situation, we need to order companies to continue contacting and doing business. We realized that we cannot rely solely on physical contact, but also online contact. Therefore, we have created a virtual comprehensive service platform. However, most companies also want to have face-to-face conversations. Therefore, we will combine physical exhibitions and conferences with online versions and launch "Exhibition+" in July 2022, seamlessly connecting online and offline activities. Currently, all activities are carried out through this method. They use this platform to arrange meetings at exhibitions or learn about each other's products in advance, making the entire process smoother. We also use big data and artificial intelligence to make the entire business matching more accurate.
We believe that it is important to apply technology in the future and understand the latest needs of different industries, so we have added three major elements to all of our exhibitions: first, technology, and how different industries apply technology; The second is sustainable development, paying attention to how new products and solutions can do better in green development; The third is to focus on how to incorporate "big health" elements into different industries, which is of great concern to everyone. As a city of exhibitions, Hong Kong has many advantages, and as long as we continuously improve ourselves, I believe the prospects should be very promising.
The picture shows Fang Shunwen in an interview with China News Network's "Hong Kong and Macao Reception Hall". Photo by Chen Yongnuo, journalist from China News Network
China News Network Fang Shunwen: Technology is an important link in promoting global economic development. Our annual Asia Financial Forum specifically showcases financial technology; We launched a new project called the "Asia Healthcare Summit Forum" in 2021, showcasing the development of healthcare and biotechnology in mainland China and Hong Kong, allowing everyone to understand that Asia is a large market with many good solutions to bring to the world.
In April this year, we launched the "Hong Kong International Innovation and Technology Exhibition". In the past, there were many different technology exhibitions focused on the industry, and people only focused on the importance of innovation itself. Therefore, our new exhibition highlights the importance of innovation, and we hope to introduce the remarkable achievements of mainland China and Hong Kong in technology over the past decade to the world, while helping them commercialize and expand globally. International enterprises can use this platform to enter Asia. The first session received a very enthusiastic response, with business delegations from 12 countries participating and setting up pavilions.
Participants from different industries have told us that they will come every year in the future because they need to see new technological elements that cannot be fully understood online, which is very useful for our investment promotion. For example, there is a British company that specializes in medical robots. They believe that Hong Kong now has great support for medical technology and that Asia is a large market. After participating in the "Asia Healthcare Summit Forum," they directly settled in Hong Kong and also developed business in Southeast Asia and other Asian regions through Hong Kong.
In terms of financial technology, Hong Kong is an international financial center that attracts many different companies to come to Hong Kong. One of the more famous is Prudential, which has relocated the entire international headquarters of the company to Hong Kong. We see that those who are interested in technology and the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area will choose Hong Kong.
China News Network Fang Shunwen: Since the resumption of customs clearance between Hong Kong and the mainland at the beginning of this year, we have received more than 300 delegations from different provinces and cities in the mainland. They all value Hong Kong as an important platform for investment promotion. Many provinces and cities hold large-scale investment promotion activities in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council often supports and participates in them. Attracting investment is an important direction in mainland China, and many provinces and cities support companies to participate in international exhibitions in Hong Kong. They say that Hong Kong is doing well and will come to support them.
They are also discussing with us to go global and attract investment, especially Hong Kong, which is a major promoter of the Greater Bay Area. For example, next week we will hold a promotion event with Shenzhen in Malaysia, and we will also discuss with Guangdong to go to different cities. We are also discussing with the Greater Bay Area Office how to better utilize the 50 global networks of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council to do better in information or trade connectivity. Everyone is very interested in "strong cooperation" to promote together. I think in this regard, our cooperation with mainland China, especially with cities in the Greater Bay Area, will only increase and become closer.
【
