State-owned enterprises in East China’s Shandong province signed 25 projects worth $3.2 billion with corporations from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions at a meeting on Tuesday, the third day of the five-day Hong Kong-Macao-Shandong Week.
The meeting, hosted by the Shandong Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, attracted about 190 attendees, including government officials and representatives of 18 provincial State-owned enterprises.
Ten provincial State-owned companies, including Shandong Gold Group and Shandong Port Group, signed onto the projects, covering the finance and insurance, health and medical, transportation, mining, and communication industries.
Hong Kong is the most important hub for Shan-dong’s company doing business with foreign companies, and is also the main hub where foreign capital flows into Shandong.
Zhou Jiannan, head of mainland business at Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing
“We attach great importance to Hong Kong’s financial market,” said Man Shengang, Party secretary and director of the Shandong Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
As of the first quarter of 2024, 68 Shandong companies were listed in the city. In 2023, the trade between the two areas reached 65.5 billion yuan ($9.04 billion), a year-on-year increase of more than 40 percent.
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Zhou Jiannan, head of mainland business at Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing, praised the long history of cooperation between Hong Kong and Shandong. “Hong Kong is the most important hub for Shan-dong’s company doing business with foreign companies, and is also the main hub where foreign capital flows into Shandong,” he said.
In 2023, Shandong saw the establishment of 964 enterprises backed by Hong Kong investors, with actual utilization of Hong Kong capital reaching $12.35 billion, accounting for more than 70 percent of the province’s total utilized investment from outside the mainland.
Zhou said, “As an important node on the Belt and Road, Hong Kong also pays attention to the cooperation with Shandong. The HKEX will strengthen the cooperation with Shandong’s provincial State-owned companies, and then explore the markets along the Belt and Road jointly.”
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Hong Kong-Shangdong Week was held for 10 years in Hong Kong before 2019. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was renamed Hong Kong-Macao-Shandong Week and resumed in 2023.
