Hong Kong's emerging testing ground function translates into global competitiveness

HONG KONG, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong, the second-most competitive economy in the world, named by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development, is amplifying the value it can create for global companies, analysts and business leaders told Xinhua.

"On top of a financing hub, Hong Kong is also a prime spot for companies to test new businesses and seek industrial use of new technologies," said Wang Shuguang, president of China International Capital Corp Ltd.

Being a part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the world's leading industrial powerhouse, adds to Hong Kong's overall competitiveness, analysts say.

The area features end-to-end supply chains of such sectors as new energy vehicles and advanced equipment, as well as large reserves of engineers and industrial land, Wang noted. This means that new technologies can go from labs in Hong Kong's slew of world-class universities to factories and markets in a shorter time.

Global firms can set up offices or regional headquarters in Hong Kong to avail themselves of its dispute settlement mechanisms and tax benefits, and base their manufacturing assets in other GBA cities, said Zhou Hao, chief economist at Guotai Junan International.

"Hong Kong checked many boxes in terms of business environment," Nina Barton, director of sustainability for Asia Pacific at DSV, a Danish logistics firm. The company has been operating in Hong Kong for around 30 years, and has recently expanded its business and office space in the city.

Hong Kong's status as a free port and its location in the Asia Pacific help DSV run its operations in the region, said Barton, also giving nods to low taxes and the general ease of doing business in Hong Kong.

She said the company is working with the Hong Kong Science Park for access to the latest sustainable technologies they can test in Hong Kong before wider adoption in other markets in the region. Barton also singled out the GBA's potential in powering the green transition of the aviation industry through ramping up production of sustainable aviation fuel.

Biotech and medical companies see the GBA as a more literal testing ground -- for clinical trials. Sanja Baumann-Tomovska, co-founder and CEO of Swiss biotech company Quant Biomarkers, said the company established its Asia headquarters in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park, eyeing mass production in the GBA.

The firm plans to set up labs in Hong Kong in collaboration with Hong Kong University and take trials and production across boundaries to other parts of the GBA. This is how it will obtain easier access to the 88-million-people market, she said.

Hong Kong saw 413 global companies set up or expand businesses in the first six months of the year, an increase of 10 percent year on year, according to Invest Hong Kong, an investment promotion agency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. Together, they are estimated to bring in over 53 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 6.75 billion U.S. dollars) in foreign direct investment, while creating over 8,600 new jobs.