The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) reassured Filipino businessmen and entrepreneurs that Hong Kong remains an effective platform for global business despite the recent social incidents in the city.
HKTDC Deputy Executive Director Benjamin Chau said that Hong Kong continues to be a competitive city that enjoys ease of doing business, economic freedom, a low level of corruption, international talent, and free flow of capital, goods, people and information.
“Hong Kong is still very strong in terms of economic and financial fundamentals. A lot of academic and economic institutes still recognize Hong Kong as the freest economy, as a very competitive city, good for investments and so on,” HKTDC Deputy Executive Director Benjamin Chau told the local press.
To take advantage of the opportunities that Hong Kong offers, Mr. Chau is encouraging Filipino companies to participate in trade fairs being organized by HKTDC which connect firms to global markets and a wealth of business opportunities.
These include opportunities arising from two of China’s major initiatives, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Hong Kong-Guangdong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development that present huge market opportunities for various sectors, including traders.
With regards to the issue of security, Mr. Chau assured that special security measures are always in place to respond to different situations during trade fairs. These include providing exhibitors and buyers bus services that would transport them from the airport to the hotel and exhibition center.
In fact, from July to September, nine HKTDC fairs in the city were held smoothly and proceeded as planned. These large-scale fairs and conference attracted over 5,000 exhibitors and more than 66,000 buyers, including close to 350 Filipino buyers.
“I will not say we are 100% safe, but the risk level is not high. At least during my trade fairs, not a single foreign visitor has been hurt, no complain at all. So, I think, it’s competitively safe to come to Hong Kong for sourcing,” Mr. Chau said.
This October to November, the HKTDC is organizing seven large-scale trade fairs, including the HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition), electronicAsia, the HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition), and the HKTDC Hong Kong International Outdoor and Tech Light Expo. These four upcoming fairs alone have attracted about 7,430 exhibitors, a figure largely on a par with last year, showing that the recent social unrest in Hong Kong has not affected global exhibitors’ confidence in relation to attending trade fairs in the city.
In terms of Filipino firms’ presence in HKTDC trade fairs, Mr. Chau said that only about 30 companies have been participating as exhibitors all year round. This is due to lack of resources and support from the local government, he said.
“Filipino companies are lack of resources, so I hope relevant authority can support them more financially to join overseas promotions,” Mr. Chau said.
Mr. Chau noted that trade fair is a wonderful platform and Filipino companies can make use of Hong Kong to promote themselves and to attract investments.
“You should look at Hong Kong as an important platform,” Mr. Chau said. “Sometimes, people [firms and investors] ignore Hong Kong because we just have a small population, but Hong Kong is a very important platform. Though [we] only have seven million people, we consume more than the US does.”
“A lot of companies from Thailand, Japan, Korea [and] France are already relying on Hong Kong [as] platform to sell to the world. So, why not Filipino companies?” Mr. Chau added.
Apart from organizing trade fairs, the HKTDC supports Philippine companies through other events and activities. These include organizing overseas promotions like the “In Style • Hong Kong,” which connects companies in emerging markets with Hong Kong services providers and product suppliers.
The next edition of the campaign will be held in the country on March 5 to 6, 2020 at SMX Convention Center Manila in Pasay City. This will feature a trade expo showcasing a wide array of quality branded and design-led lifestyle products from Hong Kong, a service symposium featuring a range of business services, a high-level gala dinner, and a series of citywide promotions.
