President of the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong Wingco Lo will accompany Chief Executive John Lee on an upcoming delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The visit will evaluate local business conditions, investment policies and industrial support to facilitate the entry of Hong Kong enterprises into the Central Asian market.

Highlighting the importance of the region, Mr Lo noted that Central Asian countries are key members of the Belt & Road Initiative and represent fast-growing economies.

"We want to have a strong connection with Central Asia in the future," he said. "We want to identify business opportunities by visiting local enterprises and infrastructure projects. We can better understand the latest developments in areas such as innovation, technology, manufacturing, green development and trade. This will help our Hong Kong businesses access and explore more opportunities there."

While Mr Lo acknowledged that Hong Kong’s current trade volume with Central Asia remains lower than that of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Middle East, both regarded as leading emerging markets, he emphasised that the region's accelerating opening-up process gives it significant market potential and strategic importance.

"The gross domestic product growth each year is over 6% or 7%," he observed. "It is a very important logistics hub in Central Asia, especially with the direct railway from China to Europe, which must pass through the region. Furthermore, the local markets are on the rise. They have huge populations, which provides an advantage for our retail sectors. They also have low-cost labour and a sufficient, young workforce, which will help our manufacturers to settle there."

Regarding the composition of the delegation, Mr Lo noted that the inclusion of Mainland enterprises enables a collaborative strategy for overseas expansion. By leveraging the existing local networks of Mainland firms to accelerate market entry, and utilising Hong Kong’s high-value supply chain management and professional services to support their international growth, both sides can achieve a win-win outcome.