The first two years of our planning cycle covering the 2020/21 - 2022/23 triennium were full of unprecedented challenges locally and globally and required us to transform our work model. Entering the last year of the triennium, we will continue to innovate new approaches and ensure delivery of our mandates to assist Hong Kong business to capture more opportunities and reinforce Hong Kong's position as a global business hub. The three objectives to guide our work up to 2023 are to:
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Cement Hong Kong as a global investment and business hub riding on Belt and Road and Greater Bay Area opportunities; |
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Leverage Hong Kong’s value-added and customised offerings to create and facilitate business opportunities worldwide; and |
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Nurture an international entrepreneurial ecosystem for Hong Kong in the digital era.
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In 2022/23, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) will continue to be a focus. In addition to disseminating new policies and subsidies offered by the 11 cities via our one-stop GoGBA platform, we will expand our GBA support centre network to a seventh location in Foshan and enrich our advisory services to include more thematic tracks to meet the demands of SMEs.
Our Priorities in 2022/23
We will stage a mega promotion Guangdong-Hong Kong Cooperation Week with the service-focused SmartHK and product-focused ChicHK as anchor events in 2022. This will be complemented by a series of "GBAConnect" roadshows covering services from finance and wealth management, legal and dispute resolution to logistics and supply chain management, innovation and IP, and infrastructure development. We will also enhance our presence in Mainland B2B fairs and extend our B2C reach via our Design Gallery network to help Hong Kong SMEs explore the robust domestic market. After two years of severely disrupted travel, the above series of events aims to reinvigorate the Hong Kong brand in Guangdong and across Mainland China and re-establish Hong Kong as the ideal partner for Mainland enterprises' regional and international ventures.
Hong Kong's value proposition as an international business, investment and innovation hub is further strengthened by China's 14th Five-Year Plan which underlines Hong Kong's unique role as the international conduit across multiple sectors. In addition to our traditional pillar sectors, we will highlight new areas such as innovation and technology, IP trading, risk management and green solutions - all areas with vast opportunities for local and international companies.
Sustainability and innovation will be high on the agenda of the global community going forward. HKTDC will work to educate and raise awareness among the Hong Kong business community, especially SMEs, that both themes are of relevance to businesses big and small and across all sectors. While sustainability and innovation engender a lot of opportunities, they also pose a lot of challenges for SMEs who generally lack the know-how and resources. We will hence roll out an educational "Sustainability Series" under the International Trade Fastpass Programme and incorporate both themes into our anchor sectoral events in Hong Kong and our mega campaigns on the Mainland and overseas. We will also work with technology companies to provide cost-effective solutions to SMEs on e-commerce, digital marketing and enterprise resource planning to help reinforce the digital capability of SMEs to meet the demands of the new normal.
ASEAN is another region of focus - as a partner, a market, a production base, and an investment destination. Our strong social and economic ties and the enhanced access provided by the HK-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement offer product exporters and service sectors plenty of opportunities. In re-introducing Hong Kong to the rest of the world, we will highlight the combined strengths and attraction of GBA as a market and as a solution provider. At our Think Business, Think Hong Kong (TBTHK) campaign in 2022, we will underline the vast opportunities awaiting Italian and Spanish companies in our region and how Hong Kong can facilitate the access. In addition to the GBA, we will also feature our deep links with ASEAN and the opportunities a GBA-ASEAN bloc can offer via Hong Kong. Green, lifestyle, design and innovation will be some of the sectors with particular potential. We will also bring the TBTHK campaign to Thailand in early 2023 to explore bilateral and regional opportunities.
Hong Kong's role as a deal-maker will be more important than ever in a post-pandemic world where companies are short of resources and eager for opportunities. We will focus on investment matching via a strategic tripartite partnership between Hong Kong, Mainland China and ASEAN, leveraging the "Hong Kong Team" approach. Health tech, fintech and green tech are expected to attract vast interest and will be highlighted at anchor investment events including the Belt and Road Summit, Asian Financial Forum and Asia Summit on Global Health.
While holding trade events in a virtual format has helped Hong Kong companies to stay connected with the rest of the world in the past two years, it is clear that businesses still prefer face-to-face in person exchange. To capture the best of the physical personal interaction and the extensive reach offered by a virtual platform, we will launch a virtual event platform (VEP) in 2022. The VEP will complement our physical trade events offering participants a seamless O2O experience supported by AI-enabled business. In addition, the extended exposure at hktdc.com Sourcing will allow exhibitors to have year-round connection with buyers beyond the hybrid fairs. The aim is to deliver better business results and an enriched user experience.
