Jointly organised by the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong trade development council, the 10th “Belt and Road summit” will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for two consecutive days starting from October 10, more than 6,000 people from Belt and Road countries and regions attended. The two-day forum broke the record of 45 co-operation memorandums, including a memorandum of Understanding signed between the HKSAR government and a “Belt and Road” nation, Hong Kong News Service reported Monday.
Hong Kong, September 10, the 10th “Belt and Road summit”. Visual China
The theme of this year’s Belt and Road forum is “Cooperation for Change, building a better future”. John Lee Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) , said in his speech that the territory was the only place that brought together “Chinese advantages” and “Global advantages”, and the “Dual super-power” of the “Super-connector” and “Super-value-added person”, the ideal “Belt and Road” hub, can continue to contribute to the high-quality development of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
According to John Lee, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Forum this year, a special segment on joint Belt and Road projects was added to this year’s event, it will also launch projects in the areas of energy, natural resources, utilities and urban development, including investment projects in the northern metropolitan area. It is estimated that the recent agreements and deals reached at the conference will be worth nearly US $1 billion.
“This is just the beginning, the beginning of a new decade of business, investment and co-operation,” John Lee said, adding that more than 45,000 participants from more than 120 countries and regions had gathered in the city over the past decade, jointly promoting more than 2,800“Belt and Road” projects. On the 10th, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government signed nine memorandum of understanding with “Belt and Road” countries on co-operation in areas including dispute avoidance, customs, anti-corruption, meteorology and investment promotion, he said.
It is understood that Hong Kong has signed free trade agreements with 14“Belt and Road” countries and investment agreements with about 20 economies, and signed comprehensive agreements for the avoidance of double taxation with 37 jurisdictions. John Lee concluded that trade with the “Belt and Road” countries exceeded US $276bn last year, up about 80 per cent since 2013 and three times the average growth rate of Hong Kong’s overall merchandise trade over the same period.
Speaking at the summit, Sun Chan Thol, Cambodia’s deputy prime minister, said there were voices vilifying the Belt and Road initiative as a so-called “Debt trap”, the “Belt and Road” initiative is the “Lifeline” of Cambodia’s socio-economic development. “Our roads, bridges, airports, power plants and canals are not a burden but an engine of opportunity,” Sun Chan Thol said, adding that the city’s role as an international financial and professional services hub was “Not a burden”, can play an indispensable role in bringing “Belt and Road” projects to fruition.
Many participants also took note of the remarks made by the Hong Kong Secretary for Justice, Lam Ting-kwok. He said joint “Belt and Road” projects involved cross-border agreements and dispute settlement and required international legal services to safeguard the interests of all parties and manage risks. Hong Kong’s international, high-quality and reputable legal and dispute resolution services provide a one-stop shop for the entire business cycle. On behalf of the Department of Justice, Lin Dingguo signed a Memorandum of co-operation with the Pakistani Ministry of Law and Justice on October 10. It is the Sixth Memorandum of co-operation signed between Hong Kong and Belt and Road jurisdictions.
Hong Kong Business Daily believes that in the face of an increasingly complex international environment, joint efforts to build “Belt and Road” have entered a new stage of development, in the future, Hong Kong should further strengthen its“Two super-capabilities”: on the one hand, it should cooperate with the mainland to maximize the function of the important intersection point of the domestic and international two-cycle, to help mainland enterprises “Go global” by jointly building high-quality “Belt and Road” and guiding international resources to enter the mainland market through Hong Kong, we will continue to enhance our capacity in professional services and work hard in areas such as digital trade, Green Development, innovation and technology to foster new growth areas for Belt and Road cooperation.
According to a report in the Hong kong-based South China Morning Post on the 11th, the chief executive Fernández of airasia Malaysia said on the 10th at the “Belt and Road” summit in Hong Kong that, the company to buy the Chinese C919 aircraft showed great interest, “Is actively negotiating the purchase of C919 matters.”.