Lee’s Silk Road caravan has high expectations

Chief Executive (CE) John Lee Ka-chiu’s 60-strong trade delegation from Hong Kong and the mainland to Central Asia next month will lift the near isolated states to the world markets.

Hong Kong will be the super- connector, offering its internationally renowned financial services as a fundraising platform to ease the flow of trade between central and east Asia and to the rest of the world. And it will be a super value-added delegation with the CE leading a delegation that, for the first time, combines Hong Kong’s finance, legal, and logistics firms with mainland energy, mining, and pharma companies. This Hong Kong + Mainland model is likely be a forerunner to future trade missions actively packaging cross-border deals, providing project structuring, risk management, and post-investment services.

The target destinations are Kazakhstan (bordering China at its north) and Uzbekistan (at its south) but were recognised in 2013 as being an integral part of the cog in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The two countries are both Hong Kong's key trading partners in Central Asia, taking up 59.7 per cent and 13.2 per cent of Hong Kong's total exports respectively to the area.

Hong Kong’s cooperation with Central Asia gathered pace last week when Hong Kong and Kazakhstan officially established a comprehensive framework for cross-border criminal justice, signing three major bilateral agreements on Friday that govern the extradition of fugitives, mutual legal assistance in criminal investigations, and the transfer of prisoners.

China’s deepening ties with Kazakhstan have provided a strong incentive for Hong Kong to extend its reach to Central Asia, especially after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Kazakhstan last year, which elevated bilateral relations to new heights. During that visit Xi promoted high-quality belt and road cooperation, pledged 1.5 billion yuan (US$209 million) towards livelihood and development projects in the region and signed a landmark permanent friendship pact.

In 2024, Kazakhstan attracted US$6.2 billion in investment from the mainland, taking up 52 per cent of what Beijing poured into Central Asia, while Uzbekistan drew US$2.2 billion.

According to statistics from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Hong Kong, meanwhile, exported US$313.4 million worth of goods – mostly telecommunications equipment and computers – to Central Asia last year, while imports from the region totalled just US$10.3 million. In 2025, more than 35.5 per cent of Hong Kong’s exports to the region were telecommunications equipment, and 16.4 per cent were computers, while apparatus and semiconductors made up 6.1 and 5.7 per cent respectively.

However, local economists have warned that as Central Asian economies were still developing, it might take time for Hong Kong to realise significant economic gains.

Kazakhstan is also leveraging Hong Kong's financial advantages to develop fintech and digital assets. Hong Kong is expected to focus on aviation, by introducing direct passenger and cargo flights to the region, as well as offering its professional financial services to companies who seek to raise funds for their ventures.

Hong Kong could also assist Central Asian businesses by providing regional logistics management and distribution hub services, advising them on international trade compliance and quality control, while connecting firms to clients in the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia.

Kazakhstan’s consul general in Hong Kong, Bauyrzhan Dosmanbetov, has been a driving force behind the Hong Kong/China mission to the Central Asian countries. In an interview with the local press, he said the lack of direct flights was currently the only missing piece in an otherwise rapidly growing puzzle of cooperation, pledging to make flight resumption a key priority for the consulate. He added that his government is in talks with major carriers over direct flights between the country and Hong Kong.

Kazakhstan aims to deepen its financial services cooperation with Hong Kong, viewing it as an ideal fundraising hub to access renminbi capital through bond issuances.

Dosmanbetov said Kazakhstan was also very interested in offshore renminbi trading, given it had a lot of projects with mainland China and needed the currency.

He added that Hong Kong, which had abundant capital, served as an ideal fundraising hub. “Hong Kong is the only financial and stock exchange hub within six hours flight to our country. It is the closest one,” he said.

He said there was also a notable 30 to 40 per cent increase in inquiries from Hong Kong logistics firms looking to make use of the Middle Corridor to mitigate risks. The Middle Corridor, previously known in the days of Marco Polo as the Silk Road, is a multimodal logistics route that connects China and Europe via Kazakhstan in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the South Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and Turkey.

From the perspective of Uzbekistan, the BRI could help open the corridor to the Persian Gulf, enabling expansion of commercial and trade routes for the country. Exporting Uzbek goods to more regions is a highly attractive incentive for Uzbekistan. At the First Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing May 2017 both presidents, Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan and Xi, spoke positively of future collaboration in BRI advancement. During those meetings, the two countries signed 115 deals worth more than $23 billion on enhancing their cooperation in electrical power, oil production, chemicals, architecture, textiles, pharmaceutical engineering, transportation, infrastructure and agriculture. In 2019 Uzbekistan established a new government group in charge of aligning their own country's development plan with China's BRI ambitions. China is Uzbekistan's largest trade partner (both in imports and exports) and has more than 1,500 Chinese businesses within its territory.

In preparation for this large trade mission, the sherpas must already be in the Central Asian countries firming up deals, ready for signatures from the heads of industry and government officials thus laying the groundwork for the future as a hedge against the uncertainties arising from the Israeli/Palestine/Iran/Ukraine/Russian conflicts.

Mark Pinkstone

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

Next month, on September 3, the world will celebrate Skyscraper Day when Hong Kong is expected to be crowned, again, as the city having the most skyscrapers. According to the Chicago-based Council on Vertical Urbanization, Hong Kong has 596 skyscrapers over 150 meters in height.

The city has been forced to build vertically due to its small land area and dense population and its skyline is among the most renowned in the world thanks to its robust financial sector, international trade connections, and creative urban planning.

Following up is Shenzhen with 444 skyscrapers and New York third with 317. The tallest building in the world is the Buri Khalifa in Dubai reach 828 meters and has 163 floors for hotels, residence, offices, observation decks and communication systems.

The council adds that Skyscraper Day is the ideal time to examine which cities have the most skyscrapers and how they represent advancements in economy and design.

Also, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has weighed in noting that when it comes to soaring skylines and architectural marvels, no country has embraced the vertical revolution quite like China. Hong Kong, along with Shenzhen, and Guangzhou (5th position) are part of a burgeoning megacity known as the Greater Bay Area, which is home to over 1,500 skyscrapers. This is even more impressive when considering that Shenzhen, which now boasts a population of 17 million people, was just a small fishing village until the 1970s.

Looking at this data from another perspective, China actually has more skyscrapers than the rest of the world combined. China has 12 cities, 2777 skyscrapers and 72 supertalls (300-599 meters tall) in the top 20, compared to the rest of the world with 13 cities, 2350 skyscrapers and 67 supertalls.

China’s prominence in the world of skyscrapers—with three cities in the top five globally—is likely to remain unchallenged, especially with the expected dominance of high risers in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis development, slated for completion in 2036.

In Hong Kong, the tallest building is the 484-meter-tall International Commerce Center which has 108 floors for the Ritz Carlton hotel, offices and retail outlets. It is also the 14th tallest building in the world.

This is followed by Two International Finance Center reaching 415 meters and home to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority which is housed from the 77th to 88th floors of the building. And third on the list is Central Plaza in Wanchai which is 374 meters tall with 78 floors of office space. On the 75th floor is a church – iSEE Church, formerly known as the Sky City Church – which is the tallest church in the world.

But tall buildings bring their own problems, especially with urban planning. In this regard, Hong Kong has long addressed the problem of the "Wall Effect" high risers present and instead has transformed its vast skyline into a global leader in sustainable construction.

The Hong Kong Planning Department has introduced strict Urban Design Guidelines and Sustainable Building Standards to break up the long rows of uniform high-rises. Developers are required to leave wide gaps, known as "breezeways," between tall buildings so that these air corridors enable natural sea breezes to flow through, cooling the streets and dispersing vehicle exhaust.
Also, the collaborative effort between the government and the construction industry has established Hong Kong as an internationally recognized hub for green high-rises. New buildings, for example, are required to allocate between 20 and 30 per cent of their site to green spaces, leading to high-rise developments featuring lush sky gardens, green roofs, and vertical planting walls that help absorb heat.

A classic example of this is The Henderson in Hong Kong’s busy central business district, which ranks it among Asia’s greenest skyscrapers, having achieved a top-tier Platinum certification for its smart, zero-carbon cooling systems and resilient layouts.

The certification process was conferred by the LEED global rankings of sustainable and environmental friendly buildings which placed Hong Kong sixth worldwide (and fourth in Asia) for meeting its strict criteria.

The verticalization of Hong Kong is necessary because of severe shortage of land. About 43 per cent of the total land area falls within the protected areas such as country parks, marine parks, wetland, sites of special scientific interest, and water gathering grounds. These areas are either statutorily protected or highly restricted from development. Development can only go up. But this has also bought a premium on land supply and price.

All land in Hong Kong is owned by the government, except where St John’s Cathedral stands, which was granted a freehold in perpetuity to the Church of England in 1847. The government leases and grants land for ownership for long periods of time, generally about 50 years or more. Land is released for development in a timely manner depending on demand generally through auctions. So for the current quarter, only one piece of land for residential use will be offered for sale in Kowloon to provide for some 250 high-rise flats.

The measured land release comes as Hong Kong’s residential market shows signs of recovery after years of downturn and when the government has lowered its land premium revenue target for the 2026-27 financial year to about HK$18 billion (US$2.3 billion).

For the current quarter, supply would also include more than 3,000 units from the first Northern Metropolis large-scale land disposal project in Hung Shui Kiu. The government aims to award the tender during the next week or so.

The Hung Shui Kiu pilot site marked the first land sale under the government’s new large-scale land disposal model for the Northern Metropolis.

Again, all of the once fertile agricultural and fish pond land in the Northern Metropolis will be transformed into a sea of high rise futuristic buildings to keep Hong Kong at the top of the skyscraper ratings for many years to come.