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Hong Kong and the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) are set to commence negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement to boost investment ties between the two economies, the city’s leader has announced during his visit to Dubai.
Memorandums of understanding (MOUs), meanwhile, have been exchanged between Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and its counterpart in the Emirates, as well as between a local architectural firm, a home-grown tech start-up and an Abu Dhabi smart city operator.
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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the planned negotiations on the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) at a business forum in Dubai on Wednesday night.
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“I am keen to build ever stronger economic, trade and investment ties with the UAE,” he told hundreds of businesspeople in Dubai.
“An FTA between Hong Kong and the UAE, therefore, is the logical next step in our relations. I’m confident it would substantially boost trade and investment ties between us.”
The UAE’s minister of state for foreign trade, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, said business exchanges at the forum were an important step in enhancing the prospects for bilateral cooperation in a wide range of sectors, especially shipping, logistics, services and air transport.
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“Strengthening investment and trade partnerships with Hong Kong supports the strategic cooperation between the UAE and China, and contributes to opening new business fields,” he said.
Hong Kong has signed eight FTAs with 20 economies, including a unique accord with mainland China called the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa). Others were with economies including New Zealand, Asean countries and member states of the European Free Trade Association.
The financial hub also commenced its first round of FTA negotiations with Peru last month, covering trade in goods, services, investment and electronic commerce.
The value of foreign trade between the UAE and Hong Kong amounted to about 32 billion dirhams (US$8.7 billion) during the first nine months of last year, up 36 per cent compared with the same period in 2021.
Hong Kong was among the top 10 trading partners for the UAE in 2021, with a contribution of more than 2 per cent of the country’s total non-oil trade.
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Dubai opened in October 2021, the city’s first in the Middle East.
An exchange of MOUs also took place at the forum including one between an Abu Dhabi smart city, Masdar, and its start-up accelerator Catalyst, and two Hong Kong companies. They are HPA, an architectural firm co-owned by one of the Hong Kong delegates, Nicholas Ho Lik-chi, and a Cyberport start-up, Negawatt.
HPA is set to incorporate new materials and coatings to reduce carbon blueprints in the smart city project funded by Mubadala Development Company, while Negawatt plans to integrate a cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) “carbon wallet” to collect and report building performances for sustainability in the district.
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“With our engagement application and the right incentives, we want to change how people eat, shop and work. All can be tokenised based on quality data,” Negawatt CEO Arthur Lam told the Post.
HPA chairman Ho said his team would head back to the smart city within two months to identify sites to start applying and testing their solutions.
At the event on Wednesday, Dubai Chambers announced the opening of an international office in Hong Kong, and also exchanged an MOU with the Trade Development Council. The other MOU involved Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park in the UAE.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Hong Kong leader John Lee meets head of UAE sovereign wealth fund over fostering collaboration with city’s firms
- John Lee jetting off to Middle East, Southeast Asia a stopgap measure, not a solution for Hong Kong’s economic woes, experts say
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