Hong Kong fair seeks investments in Jiangxi

The Tengwang Pavilion is a major tourist attraction in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province. [Photos provided to China Daily]

A partner of Ford Motor Co, Jiangling Motors Co is the leading automaker in Jiangxi.[Photos provided to China Daily]

More than 1,300 projects to be presented at event

A business and trade fair between Jiangxi province and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is being held in Hong Kong from Wednesday through Friday to promote business opportunities in the East China province.

The Jiangxi provincial government has organized the event in Hong Kong annually for the past 14 years.

At this year’s fair, Jiangxi has proposed more than 1,300 projects, seeking investment of about 1.13 trillion yuan ($181 billion).

Among them, 475 projects relate to emerging industries, 427 to modern service industries, 82 to new agricultural industries, and 149 are major infrastructure projects.

The fair is expected to enhance high-level exchanges between Jiangxi and Hong Kong, as well as boost collaboration between both locations. It is also expected to help Jiangxi further open up and upgrade its economy.

Lu Xinshe, the governor of Jiangxi, is heading the province’s delegation to the fair. According to the agenda, two high-level conferences, an investment promotional activity and five events for business matchmaking will be part of the fair.

The promotional activity is targeting investment and cooperation opportunities in the province’s key industrial clusters.

Invited guests include about 200 representatives from the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong-based investment promotional agencies as well as important business and trade associations, Global Fortune 500 companies and leading enterprises in Hong Kong.

Companies that have investment projects or are looking for business collaborations in Jiangxi have also been invited.

A buffet dinner will be held for representatives from about 30 member enterprises of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce based in Hong Kong and Macao to discuss business cooperation opportunities with delegates from Jiangxi province.

Some of those enterprises already have collaborative projects in Jiangxi and others plan to invest in the region.

PPP projects

A promotional event for public-private partnerships between Jiangxi and Hong Kong is open to about 50 enterprises from related industries.

The event aims to encourage private investment to enter public areas and will give details of the business environment and opportunities in Jiangxi.

At the end of 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission published a document to encourage and guide cooperation in PPP across the nation. The document said PPPs can innovate investment and financing mechanisms.

A catalogue of 1,133 cooperative investment projects has been compiled by the Jiangxi province’s development and reform commission and publicized on its official website.

A total of 156 PPP projects, seeking investment of 318.58 billion yuan, were included in the catalogue and are being promoted at the Hong Kong fair.

The projects are mainly related to infrastructure such as traffic, irrigation, energy and urban construction, as well as public services in the fields of education, health and pensions, culture and tourism.

During their stay in Hong Kong, the Jiangxi delegation members will visit local organizations, business associations and businesspeople, including the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, to negotiate cooperative issues.

The Jiangxi delegation will also meet with a group of key investors, including senior executives of such enterprises as China Resources, Kerry Properties and Morgan Stanley, to promote key projects.

Financial cooperation

A meeting on cooperation in the financial industry between Jiangxi and Hong Kong will take place between financial institutes including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the HKEx, local banks and investment foundations.

The conference aims to both attract financial institutes and investment foundations into Jiangxi and prepare more Jiangxi-based enterprises to be listed in Hong Kong.

There is also a conference on the province’s strategy to attract more large State-owned enterprises.

A conference will be held to promote the province’s self-driving tour routes and other tourism products.

The organizer has invited chairmen and members of car clubs in Hong Kong and Macao, including clubs for owners of Ferraris, Land Rovers and BMWs, and other tourism-related companies.

In addition to activities at provincial level, cities and counties in Jiangxi province will hold 60 smaller promotional events during the three days.

The province’s information office and bureau of commerce have produced promotional plans for the event.

More than 30 Hong Kong-based media outlets and more than 10 major media outlets from the Chinese mainland have been invited to run special reports on the event that cover Jiangxi’s unique advantages.

The province’s authorities have placed great importance on the annual event. The province’s department of commerce held five special meetings in preparation for the event.

Different cities and departments in Jiangxi also sent more than 20 business delegations to Hong Kong and Shenzhen before the event.

More than 100 key cooperation projects, with investment totaling $10 billion, were agreed on before the event and more are expected be signed in Hong Kong this week.

Trade and investment cooperation between Jiangxi province and Hong Kong have achieved remarkable progress in recent years.

Hong Kong has been the largest source of overseas investment for Jiangxi since China initiated its reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s.

By the end of 2014, there were 10,494 Hong Kong-funded companies in Jiangxi, with investment totaling $39.19 billion.

Hong Kong is the fourth-largest trade partner of Jiangxi, with trade between the two reaching $20.45 billion between 1997 and 2014.