Asia calling

What is HKTDC looking to achieve in the UAE?

Mr. Fred Lam, Executive Director, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).

I have bought a very large delegation representing 237 companies. We are here to promote the excellent Hong Kong products, and we have been here for four years now. Obviously we want to build a very strong trade relationship, but this is only one of many missions that we have made to Dubai over the last year. The areas that we can work together with Dubai are many, and obviously trading is only one of those areas.

We want to promote Hong Kong's lifestyle products, products that we believe the consumers and importers here will appreciate, including jewellery, watches, fashion accessories consumer electronics, and fashion garments.

We are looking at high-end products, because we feel that the consumer here will appreciate the quality and design of some of the lifestyle products that Hong Kong companies are producing. That's why we have this very specific theme, and we believe that buyers and consumers here will appreciate that.

Are there many similarities between the two cities?

I see a lot of similarities between Hong Kong and Dubai. If you look at Hong Kong, we are not really a big market in ourselves, but then we serve a very large and very promising hinterland. For Dubai the Middle East is the market, and for Hong Kong it's China and Asia. In that way, I do see similarities, and if we can build a strong bridge between Dubai and Hong Kong, then we can bring our two respective hinterlands closer together. I think the possibilities would be endless.

I think traditionally our relationship has been more on the trading side, as we have always brought a lot of products through Dubai to the Middle East, and also Dubai has always gone to Hong Kong to source products through Hong Kong, from the rest of Asia. I think that we have built on this relationship and I think we can diversify into many other areas where both Dubai and Hong Kong are now trying to develop.

What other areas of cooperation might there be?

Hong Kong itself is also a trading hub, and we are strong in the services sector too. The areas that we are now working with Dubai include finance, construction, construction related services, and also the other area that we're very keen to develop is now logistics, as Dubai is such an important transportation hub in the Middle East.

To develop that it will require a lot of support from logistics companies - another area where Hong Kong is very strong. Of course we are very strong in finance and construction-related professional services. Here there are very many similarities between Dubai and Hong Kong, which is itself such an important transportation hub in Asia. As a result of Hong Kong's development as a transportation hub in Asia, we have also groomed a lot of logistics companies.

We feel that these companies would bring some of the unique expertise that we have in Hong Kong to the Middle East, and at the same time it would offer a lot of opportunities to our companies too, and these Companies would be interested in investing in Dubai in this particular area. We'd like to see a diversification into the service areas, as I think that both Dubai and Hong Kong aspire to be the service centres of our prospective regions, but I think the trading side will continue to be important.

So could Hong Kong act as a gateway to China for Middle East investors?

For the simple reason that Hong Kong companies have been operating in China for more than 25 years now, so we have built up all the connections and we have all the expertise in mainland China, and I think probably it will be an easy and effective way for them to use Hong Kong as their partner as they try to develop their business in mainland China.

Hong Kong is doing the same thing as Dubai. With China and the rest of Asia, although they are all very promising markets, it's probably going to be difficult for some of the Middle East companies to try and be everywhere, and I think that Hong Kong will be a very important and very useful gateway, particularly into China.

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