Speeches

IDHKBA Breakfasting Gathering in Jakarta Indonesia

Following is the speech by the Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Mr Law Kin-wai at Indonesia-Hong Kong Business Association (IDHKBA) Breakfasting Gathering in Jakarta, Indonesia today (May 15):

Jeffrey (Vice Chairman of Indonesia-Hong Kong Business Association, Mr Jeffrey Cheung), Kwan Ho (Director of Hong Kong Trade Development Council Indonesia, Mr Leung Kwan Ho), Ladies and Gentlemen,

Selamat malam! I am very happy to meet you all and share this evening with you. First of all, I would like to wish you a very blessed Ramadan.
Today, I would like to share with you some thoughts on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, or in short, the Greater Bay Area. The plan is important:

• a key development strategy in China’s reform and opening up in a new area;
• a further step in enriching the practice of “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong; and
• a locality of much relevance to ASEAN, including Indonesia.

Let me first give you an overview of the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong’s perspectives. After that, I would be happy to take questions and have an interactive exchange with you all.

Greater Bay Area
The Greater Bay Area is a strategic and affluent part of Mainland China:

• a total area is 56 000 square kilometres;
• a population of 71 million, larger than the United Kingdom or France; and
• a GDP of US$1.6 trillion last year, about 12% of China’s GDP and almost the entire size of South Korea.

These should give you a very good indication of the prospects and potential of this region Greater Bay Area.

The Greater Bay Area enjoys very distinctive geographical advantages with the most intensive cluster of airports and ports in the world. The area as a whole has enjoyed very robust economic growth, and is full of vibrancy and vitality. Guangdong is the fastest growing province in the entire Mainland China, and Hong Kong is a mature economy.

It has a high concentration of key areas in innovation including research and development, advanced manufacturing and market development. We also have an advanced level of internationalisation and global connections, particularly in Hong Kong, that over the years we have established.

To further illustrate it, we may compare the Greater Bay Area to the other three prominent bay area economies in the world - the Tokyo Bay Area, the New York Metropolitan Area and the San Francisco Bay Area:

• largest geographical size and population;
• largest cluster of airports and ports, in terms of annual airport freight turnover and annual port container throughput;
• we are slightly behind the Tokyo Bay Area and the New York Metropolitan Area in terms of GDP, but with the high growth, there is huge potential to catch up.

Mission of the Greater Bay Area
Simply put – through further deepening cooperation, to promote coordinated economic development in the area, leverage the complementary advantages, develop an international first-class bay area for living, working and travelling, and further enhance the Greater Bay Area’s supporting and leading role in the country’s economic development and opening up.

Outline Development Plan
In February this year, the Outline Development Plan was promulgated. The scope covers a spectrum of areas, including innovation and technology hub, infrastructure connectivity, modern industrial system, ecological conservation, a quality living circle, as well as contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Hong Kong’s role
The premise of Hong Kong’s participation is “One Country, Two Systems". We strive to facilitate the free flow of people, capital, goods, and information within the Greater Bay Area.

Hong Kong's competitive strengths lie in many aspects:

• an international financial centre – the world's number three after New York and London;
• an international aviation hub – our international airport served 74 million passengers and 5.1 million tonnes of cargo last year, the world's number one in terms of air cargo throughput;
• a very business-friendly society, ranked number four worldwide by the World Bank in terms of ease of doing business, and our business environment is deeply grounded in the rule of law with certainty and clarity;
• the freest economy in the world as ranked by the US-based Heritage Foundation for 25 successive years;
• a business hub with over 8 700 overseas and Mainland companies and many of them are using Hong Kong as their regional headquarters and regional offices; and
• top-notch universities which make us very well positioned for doing innovation and technology. Four of our universities are among the world's top 100.

Specifically, Hong Kong's key roles in the Greater Bay Area include several areas:

• playing an important role in financial services – a platform for investment and financing, financial co-operation and development; offshore Renminbi business (the world's largest offshore Renminbi business hub); promotion of green finance; and quality insurance services;
• transport and logistics hub – the Hong Kong International Airport; aviation training; high-end maritime services in leasing, financing, registration to ports; and unrivalled transport connectivity through infrastructure development;
• innovation and technology – Hong Kong’s distinguished universities will continue to contribute to the innovation and technology hub while the advanced manufacturing capability in Guangdong will provide the needed production capacity for the discoveries of innovation and technology; a significant number of policies by HKSARG to grow the innovation and technology industry and an investment of a total of US$12.5 billion from hardware to software and from research funding to talent nurturing;
• legal services hub – providing services for international legal and dispute resolution not only in the Greater Bay Area, but also as an arbitration and dispute resolution hub for Asia-Pacific; and
• Others – quality medical services, higher education and also our creative industries, especially in the film industry.

With our bilateral close ties, Hong Kong stands ready to connect Indonesia and ASEAN with the Greater Bay Area.

ASEAN as a whole is Hong Kong's second largest merchandise trading partner and Hong Kong is ASEAN's 6th largest. I am sure many of the Indonesian enterprises represented here this evening have an office in Hong Kong or are thinking of having an office in Hong Kong.

We also have close links and friendship between Hong Kong and Indonesia. There are over 70 flights every week between Hong Kong and four destinations in Indonesia. We are pleased to hear that the new Cathay Pacific route to Medan which commenced operation in October last year is gaining popularity. In terms of tourists and students studying in Hong Kong, the numbers are also growing encouragingly.

My office, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office will continue to work closely with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Indonesia-Hong Kong Business Association to seize the opportunities in the Greater Bay Area development with our Indonesian friends.

If you would like to know more, please visit the Hong Kong SAR Government’s dedicated website (www.bayarea.gov.hk). You may also visit the official Facebook and Instagram pages (@hk.bayarea) which share interesting stories and useful information of the 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area.

In the following time, I would be happy to take any questions you may have on this topic. Thank you.

Ends/ Wednesday, May 15, 2019