Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF) held the Insight Forum, entitled “High-quality Belt and Road Development: From Regional Cooperation to Hong Kong’s Transformation and Potential”, on 16 September, inviting the keynote speaker, Dr Jonathan Choi, Chairman, The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong, Chairman, Sunwah Group, and Special Counsellor, OHKF, together with Bernard Chan, Chairman, OHKF and Chairman & President, Asia Financial Holdings Limited, and Nicholas Ho, Commissioner for Belt and Road, the Government of the HKSAR, to foster productive discussions on Hong Kong’s evolving role and future development prospects within the ASEAN region and the broader Belt and Road framework.

Dr Jonathan Choi said that Hong Kong SMEs have decades of experience in investing in factories in ASEAN countries, but companies can transform from factories to invest in ASEAN's consumer markets. In particular, some of the ASEAN countries have a similar population, average age and middle class as the Greater Bay Area. In addition, with the increase in digital enterprises and the creativity and capability of start-ups in ASEAN countries, Hong Kong should look at the world and strengthen co-operation.

Nicholas Ho highlighted Hong Kong has advantages in air transport, trade and professional services, which can lead to win-win co-operation, but the most important thing is to have a clear positioning, especially when the world is developing rapidly, and it is worthwhile to promote the green economy ecosystem, which is a new development.