Recently, the chairman of HKTDC Peter LAM Kin-ngok and the executive director Margaret Fong led a delegation of Hong Kong businessmen to Nanjing. Major governmental officials met with prominent guests from Hong Kong and expected more Hong Kong entrepreneurs to explore, learn about, and invest in Nanjing. Nanjing remains committed to providing a top-notch environment for businesses to thrive.
During this visit, the SmartHK Jiangsu-Hong Kong High-Quality Development Cooperation Conference kicked off in Nanjing on August 28. Around industries such as finance, green low-carbon initiatives, technological innovation, and cultural creativity, the event consisted of a keynote conference, specialized sessions, startup roadshows, exhibitions of Hong Kong companies, and trade matchings. The Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Commerce invited nearly 300 representatives from Nanjing’s business community to discuss collaborative opportunities with Hong Kong companies in financial services, technological innovation, green and sustainable development, and cultural licensing. On August 29, nearly 100 representatives of Hong Kong businesses toured Nanjing to assess the business environment of Nanjing and explore bilateral investment and trade opportunities. The delegation split into two routes, namely, “Technology Innovation” and “Professional Services” to visit key platforms and enterprises such as Sumec Group, NARI Group, Nanjing Bio-pharmaceutical Valley, Integrated Circuit Innovation Center, China Telecom Unmanned Technology, TICA Energy, Simcere Pharmaceutical, T3Go, and Healthnice Pharmaceutical. Entrepreneurs from Nanjing and Hong Kong advanced cooperation in areas like technological innovation and financial services.
SmartHK has been an annual flagship event organized by HKTDC in major cities on the Chinese mainland since 2011. It aims to showcase Hong Kong’s high-quality professional services and technological advantages, and promote cooperation and exchanges between Hong Kong and the provincial and municipal authorities in Chinese mainland across various sectors. In June 2014, the SmartHK exposition was successfully held in Nanjing, with representatives from over 10,000 enterprises in Jiangsu Province. A decade later, the HKTDC brought the “SmartHK Suzhou-Hong Kong High-Quality Development Cooperation Conference” back to Nanjing, which highlighted the progress in cooperation between Nanjing and Hong Kong around the theme of “Innovative Cooperation and Cooperative Innovation to Promote High-Quality Development Together”.
For a long time, bilateral investment between Nanjing and Hong Kong has yielded fruitful results. In February last year, the “customer clearance” between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland was fully restored. Municipal leaders led the first large-scale economic and trade delegation to Hong Kong, the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Commerce signed the Cooperation Agreement on Further Deepening the Opening-Up of the Service Sector between Nanjing and Hong Kong. In October, the government leadership from Jiangsu Province visited Hong Kong for exchanges, resulting in the signing of an agreement for 15 cooperative projects from Nanjing during the visit with a total investment nearing $1.3 billion, which provided new momentum for cooperation between the two regions. The latest SmartHK event in Nanjing injected new vitality into bilateral cooperation.
Hong Kong is the largest source of foreign investment in Nanjing and serves as a significant window and platform for Nanjing enterprises to “go global.” As of July 2024, there have been a total of 5,994 approved and newly established investment projects from Hong Kong, with a cumulative contracted value of $80.1 billion and actual utilization of funds up to $43.44 billion, making it the top source of foreign investment in Nanjing across these three indicators. Furthermore, Nanjing enterprises have invested in 434 projects in Hong Kong, with a total contractual investment amount of $6.22 billion, accounting for 34% of the city’s total outward investment, significantly higher than other national regions. From January to July 2024, Nanjing’s exports and imports with Hong Kong reached up to $720 million, showing a year-on-year increase of 26.5%.
