Hong Kong should leverage its experienced, well-connected China experts and capitalise on its role as a “superconnector” to share knowledge of the country with Asean economies, former city leader Leung Chun-ying has said.
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Speaking in Kuala Lumpur on Monday at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2025, Leung also highlighted the potential for deeper economic cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the country in financial and professional services, as well as science and technology.
In his keynote speech to Malaysian officials, business leaders and diplomats, Leung said that after finishing his five-year term as chief executive in 2017, he spent on average 40 per cent of his time visiting various mainland Chinese cities to foster collaboration with the financial hub.
“While one easily assumes that outside the mainland the most experienced and the best connected of China experts are found in Hong Kong, I remain fascinated on my visits by how much more Hong Kong has to learn about business prospects on the mainland of China, and how much more Hong Kong, as the superconnector, can share their knowledge of China with other economies which include, of course, Asean,” he said.
“China will not be absent in the new world order. Knowledge about China will be the crucial key to understanding the opportunities that it offers.”
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Leung, who now serves as a vice-chairman of the nation’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability over the past 40 years were achieved through “enhanced cooperation and lower barriers”.
He said Hong Kong would continue to flourish by “staying steadfastly on the course of mutual respect, equality, dialogue and cooperation”.