Hong Kong Business Delegation Visits Georgia

A high-level business delegation of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), comprising nearly 30 delegates from different professional service sectors, officially visited Georgia on March 18. The delegation was headed by Edward Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Within the scope of the official visit, the members of the business delegation attended a seminar, where they were provided information regarding Georgia’s investment environment by the Director of Enterprise Georgia, Mikheil Khidureli. The delegates also had a chance to listen to the representatives of the Partnership Fund Georgia and JSC Georgian Railway, who spoke about a number of successful infrastructural projects that have been carried out so far.

GEORGIA TODAY attended a briefing held after the seminar by Edward Yau, to discover the major aim of the visit of the delegation and their upcoming plans.

Yau first spoke about the prospective collaboration of Georgia and Hong Kong.

“Even though Georgia and Hong Kong are separated by more than 6,600km and the flight takes nearly 14 hours, I can say that Georgia and Hong Kong are much closer in fact. Geographical distance is not able to keep us apart or challenge our partnership,” he stated, going on to emphasize the mutual interest for investments. “The territory of Hong Kong is tiny, but it represents a major international city in Asia and one of the global financial centers.”

Yau underlined the recent progress in respect of cooperation between Georgia and Hong Kong, presenting the signing of a free trade agreement in 2018 as one of the major successful examples.

As the most important reason of the visit, the Head of the delegation named the desire to strengthen the already existing partnership between Hong Kong and Georgia.

“I have taken the responsibility to bring a delegation to Georgia in order foster the economic relationship. The delegates include the professional bodies of accounting, engineering and architecture sectors, as well as startup companies and enterprises,” Yau said.

He strongly focused on the significance of the strategic location of Georgia, serving as a major gateway between Europe and Asia, and enabling international companies to allocate impressive investments in the country.

“Hong Kong is constantly developing and is ready to connect to the wider world. We believe Georgia can provide a very good strategic gateway. We are interested in developing various fields, but the growth the infrastructure is of paramount importance for us,” he noted.

Yau also shared his views regarding the current challenges in terms of Georgia’s business environ.

“I believe it is the start of a very long journey, because at the moment Hong Kong’s investments in Georgia are quite limited. Despite the fact that particular logistics companies have entered the Georgian market, there are various large-scale projects that the Hong Kong’s business sector is interested in, including the construction of ports, railway and the infrastructural development of cities. However, we do not only focus on the big and powerful companies. We aim to finance the startups and relatively small enterprises.”

“The interest of Hong Kong is pretty much the same as the interest of Georgia in Hong Kong," Yau said. "Both represent free economies. While Georgia serves as the gateway to the western part of the world, for Hong Kong can serve as a way to reach the market in China.”

By Ketevan Kvaratskheliya