Hong Kong-China Economic Integration Creates New Opportunities 

Canadian companies can take advantage of exciting new business opportunities in Asia-Pacific, thanks to Hong Kong’s latest economic focus on integration with south China.

The Director of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (Canada), Mr. Bassanio So, was recently speaking about these new opportunities to a group of Canadian federal politicians and leading business people at a reception hosted by the Canada-Hong Kong Parliamentary Friendship Group in Ottawa, Mr. So briefed the group on Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy under the “One country, two systems” principle, its steady political development, and China’s rapid economic growth. He urged Canadian companies to take advantage of these favourable factors to tap into the China market and use Hong Kong as the platform for doing business in the region.

Mr. So told his audience that Hong Kong companies are the largest investors in the Pearl River Delta, and that the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement – a free trade agreement between Hong Kong and China – has offered Hong Kong’s manufacturing and service industries “first mover advantage” into the Mainland China market, ahead of and beyond China’s World Trade Organization commitments. 

“But we haven’t stopped there,” Mr. So said. “A new concept was launched a year ago – the Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Co-operation and Development Forum (Pan-PRD) or “9+2 -- bringing together the nine provinces of southern China and the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.”

“9+2” will expand Hong Kong’s economic catchment area five-fold, from the PRD to cities like Fuzhou, Changsha and Chengdu. Hong Kong is destined to become a high-end services, administrative, managerial and financial centre for the region.

Top