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 **

It is said that sport promotes a healthy body, a healthy mind…and a healthy economy. In Hong Kong’s case that is worth about HK$51 billion (US$6.5 billion), or 1.5 per cent of our $3.4 trillion (US$ 434.2 billion) gross domestic product.

On top of that, it provides for about 84,000 jobs, according to figures released by the Census and Statistics Department.

Already Hong Kong draws on a fine reputation for hosting international sporting events, such as the Rugby Sevens, ATP and WTA tennis championships, the LIV golf tournament, equestrian events, snooker championships to name just a few. Every month The Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s calendar is filled with sporting events, both local and international, to keep sporting facilities fully booked.

Due to its high class sports facilities, low tax regime, location as the center of Asia and lifestyle appeal, Hong Kong has attracted super stars like snooker champions Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Jimmy White to take up residence here under the government’s Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS). The Scheme is designed to attract highly skilled or talented persons to settle in Hong Kong to enhance the city's economic competitiveness. Applicants are not required to have secured an offer of local employment before applying for entry or being admitted to Hong Kong for settlement under the Scheme. Accordingly, the trend is continuing as high-profile figures continue to join the city's registry. More than 100 active and retired international athletes have relocated to Hong Kong under these programs in recent years, and officials continue to process applications from prominent global sports icons.

A number of sports events in Hong Kong have been given an “M” (for Mega) ranking by the Major Sports Events Committee for their ability to draw in large international followers, thus adding to the city’s tourism coffers. The ranking is for world-level events and goes with dollar-for-dollar matching grants from the government with funding based entirely on the event’s quality, media coverage and economic tourism potential.

Events which have received the “M” rating, and thus government financial support, includes the ATP and WTA tennis tournaments, rapid and blitz chess championships, international dragon boat races, volleyball nations league, the international invitation horse racing event, fencing world championships and, of course, the famed Rugby Sevens, Rugby Sevens which last year generated some HK$780 million (US $100 million) to the city’s economy.

All “M” events are a magnet for drawing foreign visitors to Hong Kong. For example, the Rugby Sevens earlier this year drew in about 150,000 foreign visitors and rising Filipina tennis star Alex Eala, who has taken the US open by storm, filled the 15,000 seat Wimbledon Centre Court with her fans, many of whom are expected to follow her to Hong Kong for the Prudential WTA Open in November.

Hong Kong’s HK$30 billion Kai Tak Sports Park with its 50,000-seat stadium drew 2.4 million spectators in its first year of operation. The main stadium is built to serve as a multi-purpose mega-venue. Overcoming Hong Kong's unpredictable summer weather it is equipped with a retractable roof and advanced climate control, to host premier sports tournaments alongside massive pop concerts.

Hong Kong’s role in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) provides an ideal opportunity for greater interplay between the nine cities in Guangdong and the Special Economic Zones of Hong Kong and Macao. Prime examples would be the 15th National Games and historic cross-border marathons and cycling races, where athletes seamlessly travel across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The lead for cross-border sport is being taken by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which has made major proposals in our first Five Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, by transforming the GBA into an international equestrian and equine sports hub.

The club envisions a seamless multi-destination racing tourism circuit that links its world-class facilities in Sha Tin and Happy Valley with the Conghua Racecourse in Guangzhou. To further solidify this ecosystem, the proposals suggest expanding Hong Kong's successful disease-free zone management and biosecurity protocols to other regions in the mainland, such as Xinjiang.

Under this equine hub framework, the club also advocates establishing a World Organization for Animal Health collaboration center in Hong Kong and advancing institutional connectivity by expanding the mutual recognition of veterinary qualifications across the border.

Both the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Culture and Tourism Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area gives a fresh impetus to the development of the tourism industry within the GBA. With the platform of the Tourism Federation of Cities in the GBA, the Tourism Commission has been actively fostering co-operation with the tourism authorities of the Macao Special Administrative Region and the nine Chinese Mainland cities in the GBA in developing more “multi-destination” tourism products.

As the consultation scope of the Five-Year Plan has been wide to incorporate most of Hong Kong’s society, tourism leaders including event organizers, travel agents, hotels and airlines have been promoting an integrated culture-sports-tourism synergy as a total package in fostering tourism to Hong Kong.

By working together as an industry and with our neighbors, Hong Kong becomes an even more attractive sports destination offering packages for foreign visitors to stay longer in this Pearl of the Orient.