The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) will form a “strategic alliance” with the Bank of China (BOC) to get mainland Chinese companies to rely on the city as a “superconnector” as they venture overseas, its new chairman, Frederick Ma Si-hang, has said.
Advertisement
The council’s new task would be part of an expansion of its role in response to continuing geopolitical tensions, he told the Post in an exclusive interview last week.
As Ma outlined his vision to realign the statutory body’s global network of 51 offices to support businesses as they navigated the ongoing trade war initiated by Washington, he stressed that threats from American lawmakers to close the Hong Kong government’s trade offices would only prompt the HKTDC to intensify its own promotion efforts in the United States.
Ma, 73, brings his extensive government and business experience to the city’s major trade promotion body at a time when Hong Kong and mainland companies face mounting challenges caused by supply chain disruptions that may be exacerbated by the latest round of US tariffs targeting dozens of countries.
Ma, now two months into his tenure, said that during a meeting with BOC chairman Ge Haijiao in Beijing on July 23, the pair discussed forging an alliance that leveraged their respective strengths, referring to the bank’s financial reach spanning more than 60 countries and the HKTDC’s global trade network.
Advertisement
“What we decided is that we should cooperate. We should form a strategic alliance to bring their clients to overseas markets … We have excellent contacts in the overseas market, and we can also promote Hong Kong to its clients,” he said.