ALMATY (TCA) — A Hong Kong delegation headed by Finance Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, John Tsang, arrived in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, to explore opportunities for business cooperation between Kazakhstan and Hong Kong under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan reported on its website on September 16.
The delegation included businessmen in the fields of finance, law, consulting and construction.
At the working lunch with the business community of Almaty John Tsang spoke about the advantages of doing business in Hong Kong, professional financial, legal and consulting services that can provide Hong Kong counterparts. He also invited the Kazakh side to partnership by investing or creating new companies in Hong Kong.
According to Mr. Tsang, Hong Kong’s economic ties with Kazakhstan are encouraging: the average increase in bilateral trade for the period from 2011 to 2015 amounted to 19%. The Council on the development of Hong Kong’s trade sends business delegations to Kazakhstan one after another in the last three years.
The Deputy Akim (Mayor) of Almaty, Yerlan Aukenov, noted the importance and necessity of developing bilateral economic ties.
“Hong Kong is one of the leading financial centers of the world, and in this respect we are interested in its development experience,” said Aukenov. “Almaty as well as Hong Kong is the financial center of Kazakhstan. The city’s economy has a high proportion of financial transactions (40%) and service sector, including trade. We need to learn from Hong Kong’s experience in terms of creating conditions for business cooperation at the international level. We will continue to develop bilateral relations. In particular, in November of this year, we plan to form a business delegation to Hong Kong with the participation of the leading producers of Almaty.”
Along with the business lunch in Almaty, an event was also held in Astana, which attracted more than 120 leaders in business and government circles. During the visit, the Astana part of the Hong Kong delegation held a joint briefing with companies Kaznex Invest and Astana Innovation, and visited national company KTZH Express and Astana International Finance Centre. One of the key events of the visit was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Council of Hong Kong Trade Development and IFC Astana, under which Kazakhstan will promote investment projects through the portal of the Silk Road Economic Belt (www.beltandroad.hk).
