China's Tianjin Municipality, Hong Kong ink 19 cooperation projects worth 2.2 bln USD

HONG KONG, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Hong Kong and the port city of Tianjin in northern China signed 19 cooperation projects with a value of more than 15 billion yuan (about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars) at the Tianjin (Hong Kong) Investment Environment Conference held here on Monday.

The conference, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center with 300 people attending, aims to promote trade and investment cooperation between Tianjin and Hong Kong to a new level. The inked projects covered the fields of smart manufacturing, biomedicine and infrastructure.

John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said in a video address that there are many common development opportunities between Hong Kong and Tianjin, especially in financial innovation, professional services and innovative technology.

He said Tianjin and Hong Kong could draw on each other's strengths and develop more solid and broader cooperation.

Zhu Peng, vice mayor of Tianjin, said as international port cities and important transport nodes on the Belt and Road, Tianjin and Hong Kong have a long history of cooperation and exchanges.

Tianjin attaches great importance to Hong Kong and hopes to further deepen practical cooperation in various fields with Hong Kong to jointly integrate into the national development, Zhu added.

Up to now, about 12,000 enterprises from Hong Kong have been set up in Tianjin, with actual funds of more than 99 billion dollars, accounting for about half of the foreign investment in Tianjin, according to a statement released by the Tianjian Municipal People's Government.

In 2022, 235 Hong Kong enterprises were set up in Tianjin, with an investment of 4.2 billion dollars, hitting a record high in recent years, said the statement.

Meanwhile, Tianjin opened 28 institutions in Hong Kong in 2022, up by 21 percent year on year, with an investment of about 220 million dollars in place, up by 40 percent year on year.