ALICE ZHU CHINA DAILY An upcoming high-profile visit to the Middle East by a Hong Kong delegation, led by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, aims to showcase the city's all-round development in the past three years and tap the vast opportunities in the emerging market that is keen to embrace the new, says Nicholas Ho Lik-chi, a Hong Kong architect and a member of the delegation.
Other senior government officials and prominent local business leaders will also be among the team, which will travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on February 4. The visit will kick off a major global publicity campaign to promote the special administrative region that is gradually opening up to the world after the disruptions caused by the COVID 19 pandemic outbreak in early 2020.
The trip, which follows President Xi Jinping's three-day visit to Saudi Arabia in December, marks the first high-level promotion campaign to be launched by the HKSAR, which has resumed quarantine-free travel with the Chinese mainland, as well as overseas countries and regions.
Ho, who chairs Ho Partners Architects, said that the SAR delegation, consisting of 30 leaders from business, financial service, innovation and technology and cultural sectors, will spend nine days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE.
Ho is also the representative of the SAR to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council and has helped promote many projects in Southeast Asia, besides being a member of the Hong Kong Youth Development Commission.
In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Ho said that the Hong Kong delegation aims to deepen knowledge of the city s technological advancement, financial and cultural infrastructure in the past three years, and promote closer cooperation with those countries.
He said that while the trip may not bring in a lot of contracts, it is important to get the message out that the Chinese mainland and the HKSAR are actively embracing the world as they return to normalcy.
Ho s company has been an international and technologically advanced advisory platform for four decades, with landmark projects across 50 cities in 12 countries. Ho Partners Architects, a firm that specializes in city planning, smart-city and green-building design, entered the Middle Eastern market years ago.
The company is looking at the thriving cities, smart city infrastructure and planning projects in the Middle East, which is trying to shake off its dependence on the oil industry.
As a professional service provider, Ho is interested in the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 - an ambitious plan to reduce dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors, such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation and tourism.
Countries in the Middle East are very open to adopting new technologies, concepts and ideas. Following Xi's visit to Saudi Arabia, the region has shown its strong commitment and desire to collaborate with Chinese partners, Ho said.
He hopes that the Hong Kong delegation can accurately and effectively demonstrate the SAR's advantages in reaching out to the Middle Eastern countries and understand their needs to add value to various sectors and promote industrial upgrading.