Belt and Road Initiative offers opportunities for HK, Singapore

SINGAPORE - A senior official of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Friday called on Hong Kong and Singapore to work together to seize the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Carrie Lam, chief secretary for administration of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, told a Hong Kong-Singapore Strategic Partnership luncheon here that both Hong Kong and Singapore, longtime steadfast business partners, can benefit from the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

"Collectively, the Belt and Road Initiative offers unlimited growth prospects, boosting the (Chinese) mainland's global connectivity, while promoting economic, political and cultural development among countries on three continents," she said.

Infrastructure investment will be the backbone of the Belt and Road Initiative, which will demand substantial project financing, backed by a stable monetary, investment and credit system, said Lam, adding the AIIB will be part of the solution.

"The AIIB will require expertise in project financing, investment, financial management and foreign exchange management. At the same time, (as) mainland enterprises 'go global,' they will also need international investment, cross-border trade settlement, bond issuances and asset and risk management services in renminbi," she said.

"Working together, I'm confident that the professional and financial services sectors of Hong Kong and Singapore as well as other ASEAN countries have much to contribute and much to gain."

Teo Ser Luck, Singapore's minister of state for trade and industry who also attended the luncheon, said that Singapore and Hong Kong share a close and complementary economic relationship.

He said with Hong Kong's closer economic integration with the Chinese mainland, companies from Singapore and the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can use Hong Kong as a launchpad to enter the vast market of the Chinese mainland.