July 11, 2024
HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will cement the city’s role as a “superconnector” by facilitating the global expansion of Chinese mainland and foreign businesses, officials of the special administrative region government and business leaders told the CGCC World Chinese Entrepreneurs Summit in the SAR on Wednesday.
Hong Kong will make full use of bilateral cooperation channels to push its accession to the world’s largest free trade grouping and leverage multilateral cooperation platforms, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, to strengthen communication and exchanges with RCEP members and stakeholders, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in a keynote address at the summit, organized by the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong’s unique advantages lie in its strong backing from the motherland and its global connectivity, serving as a distinctive two-way business platform for Chinese mainland enterprises investing overseas and foreign companies entering the mainland market,” he said. “The SAR is a ‘super connector’ and ‘super value-added partner’ between the mainland and other economies.”
When it becomes an RCEP member, the SAR can offer a salvo of services, ranging from supply chain management to financial and professional services, and help enterprises from RCEP members tap into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, fostering economic growth and innovation in the region as a whole, Lee said.
Veteran businessman Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, who represents more than 6,000 members from various sectors in the CGCC, agreed with Lee.
“Hong Kong’s strengths in the RCEP is to assist overseas Chinese businessfolk in grabbing the opportunities brought by the Greater Bay Area and other mainland markets,” said Choi, who’s also a member of the 14th National Committee of the nation’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Seeking to join RCEP would drive mutual benefits among Hong Kong and Chinese business enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region — leveraging Hong Kong’s unique advantages under “one country, two systems” to serve as a gateway for overseas Chinese businesses to expand into the mainland market, deepening regional financial cooperation, and promoting innovation and technology development, he said.
The international financial hub applied to join the RCEP when the pact took effect in 2022, linking 15 Asia-Pacific economies and accounting for about 30 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of the global gross domestic product.
The HKSAR is banking on the RCEP to mitigate geopolitical risks as its economic recovery encounters hurdles amid escalating regional tensions.
“It’s indeed urgent for Hong Kong to join the RCEP,” said Ho Lok-sang, director of the Pan Sutong Shanghai-HK Economic Policy Research Institute at Lingnan University, in an interview. “Accession would allow Hong Kong exporters greater access to overseas markets — a particularly crucial development given the hostile stance many Western countries have adopted toward the mainland and Hong Kong.”
Ho noted that the city’s exports to G7 countries have declined, attributing this trend to two main factors — the persistence of tariffs levied, and the sluggish economic growth experienced by most G7 nations this year.
Neville Lai, an independent international affairs strategist focusing on East Asia, said, “Hong Kong must galvanize the resolve to garner support from the existing members to be admitted to RCEP as soon as possible.”
“It is not news that Hong Kong faces an unprecedented, all-round challenge to its role as an international ‘super-connector’. RCEP has profound implications for the geoeconomic re-ordering of East Asia. Hong Kong, I believe, should join RCEP and use it as the starting point to reimagine its role as a ‘super-connector’,” Lai added.
In the past few years, Hong Kong has forged close economic and trade ties with RCEP members. In 2023, the city’s bilateral trade in goods with these nations reached $800 billion, constituting about 70 percent of the SAR’s total trade in goods.
Hong Kong has also signed eight free trade agreements with 20 economies. As of last year, its trade in goods with its free trade agreement partners accounted for 65 percent of the city’s total trade in goods.
“Hong Kong and Peru have made substantial progress in their negotiations on a free trade agreement, with both sides are finalizing the details. The goal is to officially sign the agreement this year,” Lee noted.
The Hong Kong leader expressed his gratitude at a private meeting with Kao Kim Hourn, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, for the grouping’s continued support for the city’s admission to the RCEP.
Kao told the summit that Hong Kong has become one of ASEAN’s major tradingpartners since the signing of the free trade agreement between the 10-member regional bloc and the SAR.