John Lee: Hong Kong and Beijing will further strengthen cooperation in three key areas in the future.

On November 4, John Lee Ka-chiu, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the 29th Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium. He said that since its inception in 1997, the Beijing-Hong Kong Symposium has yielded fruitful results over nearly three decades. Political and business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professional elites from both places gather together to promote complementary advantages and mutual benefit between Beijing and Hong Kong, aligning with the overall high-quality development of the country. Over the years, the symposium's cooperation areas have gradually expanded from early commerce and infrastructure to high-end fields such as financial services, technological innovation, green and low-carbon development, intellectual property, and professional services. It has introduced Hong Kong's G-RESOURCES services to support Beijing's high-quality development, opened channels for Beijing's ShenZhen New Industries Biomedical Engineering to go global, achieved two-way investment and joint development, and played an important role in deepening Beijing-Hong Kong coordinated development. Standing at a new starting point and facing a new future, he wished to propose three key directions for further strengthening cooperation and pursuing common development between Beijing and Hong Kong. First, advance two-way financial opening-up to inject vigorous momentum into economic transformation. Finance is a traditional area of strength in Beijing-Hong Kong cooperation and the core of serving the real economy and empowering industrial upgrading. Last month, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers' Meeting was held in Hong Kong for the first time, bringing together finance officials from economies and representatives of multiple international organizations to discuss cooperation. A joint statement by the finance ministers was issued, reaffirming commitment to building an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community and achieving shared prosperity for the people of the Asia-Pacific and future generations. The successful holding of the Finance Ministers' Meeting in Hong Kong is of profound significance, fully reflecting the country's trust in and support for Hong Kong, as well as recognition of Hong Kong's status as an international financial center. The 2026 Financial Street Holdings annual forum held in Beijing last month, for the first time, connected Beijing, Hong Kong, and London in a three-way link, pooling strength and gathering wisdom. Hong Kong is an international financial center that actively connects the mainland market with global capital and is the most convenient international financing platform for Beijing enterprises. Through cross-border capital management, wealth management, and a network connecting global investors, it serves enterprises' business expansion needs. He believes that Beijing and Hong Kong will continue to jointly optimize capital market arrangements to serve two-way corporate financing; jointly expand green and sustainable finance; and expand cooperation in offshore RMB business, wealth management, family offices, and corporate treasury centers, among others, to jointly create a new landscape of financial opening. Second, deepen Beijing-Hong Kong innovation and technology collaboration to jointly build a highland for gathering international high-end talent. At present, the country is fully developing new quality productive forces and promoting accelerated breakthroughs in technological revolution and industrial transformation. Beijing, home to numerous universities, is the country's center for technological innovation and a core hub for national basic research and talent cultivation. Hong Kong's higher education is highly internationalized, with five universities ranked among the world's top 100, and it is fully committed to building an international innovation and technology center. Universities and research institutions in Beijing and Hong Kong have long cooperated seamlessly. In the future, they can jointly tackle frontier technologies, jointly cultivate outstanding international talent, and help build the country into an education powerhouse and a science and technology powerhouse. Under the 14th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong is fully committed to building an internationalized university town in the Northern Metropolis, which accounts for one-third of Hong Kong's area, to promote collaborative development of industry, academia, and research and achieve integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. The San Tin University Town and Hung Shui Kiu University Town have already moved from blueprints to concrete projects. The SAR government encourages participating institutions to proactively cooperate with renowned mainland and overseas institutions and leading enterprises to develop shared facilities. He believes that the university towns will write a new chapter for cooperation between universities in Beijing and Hong Kong, jointly cultivating high-end talent, and nurturing new quality productive forces. Also located in the Northern Metropolis, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Loop is a major cooperation platform of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Loop is being developed under the concept of "one river, two banks; one zone, two parks" to promote the flow of innovation elements between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park Company will advance cooperation projects with units of Beijing Centergate Technologies, an independent innovation demonstration zone, focusing on life and health technology, artificial intelligence, and Siasun Robot&Automation fields, and promoting the matching of scientific research resources and talent exchanges. At this year's Beijing Centergate Technologies Forum Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Science and Technology Innovation Forum, representatives from Beijing and Hong Kong jointly discussed taking artificial intelligence as the core to collaboratively advance scientific and technological self-reliance and high-quality industrial development, which is a model of innovation and technology cooperation between the two places. This Beijing-Hong Kong Symposium features multiple special events on science and technology innovation, including the final of the Beijing-Hong Kong Youth Innovation Cup Entrepreneurship Competition. Youth are the future of innovation, and he looks forward to more Beijing and Hong Kong young people joining hands on new tracks to create and stand out together. Third, make good use of Hong Kong's role as a "super connector" and "super value-adder" to empower enterprises in going global in all respects. In the face of the complex and ever-changing international political and business environment in recent years, going global has become more than a multiple-choice question for many mainland enterprises. Since its establishment last year, the SAR government's Task Force on Mainland Enterprises Going Global has efficiently integrated high-level professional services in finance, law, accounting, and consulting, giving play to Hong Kong's function as a multinational supply chain management center and escorting enterprises in going global. The task force has assisted more than 340 mainland enterprises, including more than 60 Beijing enterprises, in financing in Hong Kong, aligning with overseas standards, obtaining industry certifications, and making compliance arrangements. The SAR government will continue to advance the work of the task force to serve mainland enterprises in expanding overseas business. John Lee Ka-chiu continued that the country is vast and rich in resources, and what is capable of going global is not only technology and industry but also culture and soft power. Beijing is the country's national cultural center, and Hong Kong can serve as a broad window for Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism to reach the world. The Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council are jointly promoting the intellectual property rights and high-precision digital technologies of Beijing's quality cultural and museum resources, connecting with Hong Kong's international licensing platform, and using commercial models to help Chinese culture and arts expand into global markets. He is confident that Beijing and Hong Kong will carry forward the long-standing Chinese culture and tell China's story well on the world stage. Although Beijing and Hong Kong are thousands of miles apart, the people of the two places are closely connected, and the foundation for cooperation is deep. Hong Kong will continue to actively serve the country's needs, join hands with Beijing to advance together, transform the fruitful results of Beijing-Hong Kong cooperation into new momentum for high-quality development, and jointly make new and greater contributions to the country's high-level opening-up!