With this year marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of its Young Executives’ Committee (“YEC”), the Chamber specially held the World Young Chinese Entrepreneurs Summit (“Summit”) to bring together government officials, legislators, entrepreneurs, experts and scholars to discuss how to leverage Hong Kong’s functional advantages to connect young Chinese entrepreneurs around the world to jointly explore opportunities.
The Summit was graced by the presence of Guest-of-Honour John Lee, Chief Executive, who delivered a speech, and CY Leung, Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC, who delivered a video address at the luncheon of the Summit.
The Chamber, which is always committed to promoting the succession and innovative development of young entrepreneurs, actively enhances ties and interactions among young Chinese entrepreneurs to jointly explore business opportunities. In his welcome speech, Jonathan Choi, the Chamber’s Chairman, put forward three suggestions on strengthening cooperation among young Chinese entrepreneurs around the world, including: (1) Tap into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area) market by setting up regional HQ in Hong Kong and strengthen cooperation with Greater Bay Area brands; (2) Hong Kong can build a flexible and efficient financial support service platform for young Chinese entrepreneurs around the world; (3) Hong Kong can complement its advantages with the Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, strengthen industry-university-institute innovative and collaborative development, and attract young Chinese entrepreneurs around the world to pool together their innovation and technology (I&T) resources.
Looking to young Chinese entrepreneurs making great achievements in Greater Bay Area
President Xi Jinping stressed that the Greater Bay Area holds strategic importance and must be developed into a leading region of Chinese modernization. Lee said that Hong Kong should enable global investors to better understand the development of the Greater Bay Area, and the HKSAR Government will arrange for foreign companies in Hong Kong to visit the Greater Bay Area, with the aim of facilitating more cooperation.
Lee said that the HKSAR Government has specially launched the Greater Bay Area Youth Entrepreneurship Funding Scheme and the Innovative Entrepreneurship Experience Incentive Scheme, which have successfully nurtured more than 200 young start-up teams. Lee expressed welcome and looked forward to young Chinese entrepreneurs around the world pursuing their goals and accomplishing new achievements in the Greater Bay Area.
Forge closer people-to-people ties and strengthen flow of factors
Leung said that the “Belt and Road” Initiative (B&R) not only involves economic development, but also includes a five-pronged approach to cooperation (policy coordination, connectivity of infrastructure and facilities, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and closer people-to-people ties), and stressed the importance of sharing. He expressed hope for young Chinese entrepreneurs around the world to forge closer people-to-people ties. Charity groups must also go abroad and gear towards the world to provide more charity services to the B&R countries.
Leung also mentioned that young Chinese entrepreneurs have great potential in promoting participation in the construction of the Greater Bay Area, and called on them to conduct more field trips and gain a deeper understanding of the policies and business environment of the Greater Bay Area. In his view, it is necessary to achieve smoother interaction between the flow of people, materials, capital and information in order to promote the construction of the Greater Bay Area. He suggested further relaxing facilitation arrangements such as those for Guangdong and Hong Kong residents to travel and those for cross-boundary transportation between the two places to facilitate a more efficient flow of factors in the area.
Hong Kong has Distinctive Advantages and Opportunities are Abound in Greater Bay Area
-（From left）Fang Zhou, Victor Ng, Salina Yan, Ngai Lung and Robert Lee
The Summit featured two panel discussions. The first panel discussion was themed “Youth Chinese Entrepreneurs and Greater Bay Area Development.” Robert Lee, Member of the Legislative Council - Functional Constituency (Financial Services), was the moderator. Salina Yan, Permanent Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (Financial Services); Ngai Lung, Senior Vice President of CT Bright; Victor Ng, Managing Director of Best Link Logistic Sdn Bhd, and Fang Zhou, Research Director of One Country Two Systems Research Institute, discussed the prospects and opportunities for young Chinese entrepreneurs to participate in the development of the Greater Bay Area.
Hong Kong has clear positioning and effective measures
In Lee’s view, the “14th Five-Year” Plan’s further push for the development of Hong Kong’s eight major centres is set to further consolidate its advantages. Coupled with the HKSAR government’s comprehensive support measures, Hong Kong can continue to effectively function as a bridge and secure a new round of development opportunities.
Policies focus to Greater Bay Area connectivity
Yan pointed out that the 9+2 cities in the Greater Bay Area have formed a topmost-level structural mechanism to promote the implementation of various policies and measures in the area. The HKSAR Government has also been very active in continuing to roll out all-round, efficiency-oriented measures, which have achieved impressive initial results. Yan specifically mentioned that Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area have broad space for cooperation in green and sustainable finance and financial technology, and the development prospects are boundless.
Thai business community is optimistic about Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area
Ngai said that the Thai business community, which is very optimistic about the development prospects of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, is actively exploring opportunities for cooperation. His group will further expand its development in the Greater Bay Area going forward. Ngai also suggested that the governments of Thailand and Hong Kong can strengthen publicity to young entrepreneurs in Thailand and other ASEAN countries to enhance their understanding of the Greater Bay Area and the Chinese market.
ASEAN companies find Greater Bay Area appealing
Ng also attaches great importance to the business opportunities in the Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area markets. He stressed that Hong Kong’s sound international financial system can greatly facilitate overseas businesses to enter the Chinese market. In addition, the familiar business atmosphere, convenient transportation, similar culture and outstanding talents in the Greater Bay Area are all very attractive to companies from Malaysia and the ASEAN region to enter the area and expand their business.
Greater Bay Area’s innovative mechanism creates special advantages
Fang stressed that the “one country, two systems, three currencies, and three customs territories” mechanism, which makes the flow of capital and people more diverse and connected, creates special advantages. Also, in his view, the Greater Bay Area has become a very important area in the country and even the wider world. Its huge investment scale and development potential create a lot of opportunities for young Chinese entrepreneurs.
Technology Applications Combined with Innovative Industrial Development
-（From left）Pan Hui, Jason Lee, Kevin Guo, Zhang Guobei and Ducan Chiu
The second panel discussion was themed “The Future of Innovative Industries.” Duncan Chiu, Member of the Legislative Council - Functional Constituency (Technology and Innovation) was the moderator. Zhang Guobei, Vice President and President of the Smart City and Enterprise Unit of SenseTime; Kevin Guo, Founder and CEO of AIS Capital; Jason Lee, Founder of Scent by SIX, and Pan Hui, Chair Professor of Computational Media and Arts and Director of the Centre for Metaverse and Computational Creativity of HKUST (Guangzhou), discussed the future development prospects of promoting innovative industries.
Hong Kong has a comprehensive I&T development plan
In Chiu’s view, the Government has spared no effort in recent years to promote I&T development in Hong Kong. He mentioned that the new Policy Address has made specific plans for the future direction of the I&T industry, including setting up the Digital Policy Office, attracting talents, promoting cross-border joint ventures and other different areas, fully reflecting the HKSAR Government’s determination to encourage and support the development of sci-tech innovation.
Hong Kong is backed by the country to connect markets
In Zhang’s view Hong Kong has high-end talents, an ideal financial environment, and more importantly, Hong Kong is backed by the country and the Greater Bay Area, which is very conducive to the development of the I&T industry. He suggested that the Greater Bay Area continue to improve the business environment for start-ups and enhance its comprehensive layout, thereby broadening the space for the development of companies.
Greater Bay Area has considerable population, market and GDP
Guo said that the Greater Bay Area has a population of nearly 100 million people and its 9+2 cities have their own distinctive characteristics. In addition, Hong Kong has excellent talents. All these attract Japanese companies to get into the Greater Bay Area market. He suggested that the HKSAR government should increase publicity to attract Japanese start-ups to invest in the Greater Bay Area, and youth organizations could also actively promote closer connections with Japanese companies so that they can enter the Greater Bay Area market.
Singapore and Hong Kong can share resources to nurture start-ups
Lee is certain that the extensive use of innovative technologies will become the future development trend of the Greater Bay Area, and that the key for companies to secure new opportunities will be adaptation to new technologies. He further said that Hong Kong and Singapore could establish an information exchange platform to share data, and expressed hope that the two places could have more interactions and jointly nurture some world-class innovative companies.
High-end electronics poised to become focus of Greater Bay Area
Pan Hui said that bringing virtualised and digital products into people’s life will create huge business opportunities. He is certain that the Greater Bay Area can bring more development opportunities to Hong Kong in this field, and expects good development prospects for high-end electronics, automobile manufacturing, metaverse, as well as VR and AR movies in the Greater Bay Area.
Celebration Dinner
The Chamber hosted a grand celebration dinner on the night of the Summit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of YEC. The event was graced by the presence of Guest-of-Honour Alice Mak, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs. Johnny Yu, Office Bearer-In-Charge of YEC, delivered a welcome speech, and Jennifer Yeung, Chairman of YEC, raised a toast to the guests present.
The event also showed a video of Choi, sharing words of encouragement to YEC, as well as a video featuring interviews with several previous YEC leaders, which gave the guests a deeper understanding of YEC’s history and development. A variety of performances were arranged for the dinner to give the guests a pleasant evening.
Visits to Get to Know More About Hong Kong
The Chamber arranged several visits for overseas young Chinese entrepreneurs to get to know more about Hong Kong’s development in culture and innovation, including visits to the Sanxingdui Exhibition at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the Hong Kong Productivity Council, the Science Park, and the Chinese Culinary Institute.
Welcome Dinner to Enhance Ties
The Chamber hosted a welcome dinner on the eve of the Summit to welcome members of the delegations of young Chinese entrepreneurs to Hong Kong. Young entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, the Mainland, Macao and overseas got together to enhance ties.
