Hong Kong pushes on with efforts to woo top European firms despite challenges

Hong Kong authorities are pressing on with efforts to attract European companies in the UK and France to set up in the city, despite heightened global geopolitical challenges.

The government’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), created to attract firms in targeted fields, also confirmed it was approaching several top-tier pharmaceutical firms overseas, with at least one seeing promising results.

In an exclusive interview, OASES director general Peter Yan King-shun told the Post that some were keen on the potential for collaboration between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, which includes Macau and nine cities in Guangdong.

British-Swedish pharmaceutical multinational AstraZeneca had already established its Hong Kong headquarters, he said.

As part of his unit’s efforts to woo companies from other countries, Yan will be visiting the United Kingdom and France in the coming months.

“They seem to have more incentives for economic development to venture out more,” he said.