The 2024 edition of the Belt & Road Summit, co-organised by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Trade Development Council (TDC), will be held on September 11 and 12 at the Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Themed “Building a connected, innovative and green Belt & Road”, this year’s summit is anticipated to attract nearly 6,000 participants from over 70 Belt & Road countries and regions.

The business plenary meeting on the first day will focus on market prospects in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, while that on the second day will look at opportunities in the Middle East and nearby regions.

The summit will also debut a “Green Chapter” theme in its breakout sessions, allowing delegates to discuss green construction, innovation and finance.

Trade Development Council Deputy Executive Director Patrick Lau said the council is keen to engage with participants developing green projects, such as those involving renewable energy and electric vehicles.

“We aim to connect different parties from different countries and regions to gather through the Hong Kong platform and add value to whatever they want to achieve, in terms of their business ideas, finding investment capital, finding talent, to help the realisation of their projects, and therefore benefit their local communities,” he said. “That is what we think Hong Kong can contribute to the high-quality Belt & Road development.”

A local angel investor said he believes Hong Kong’s high Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, standards are an advantage.

“Hong Kong has a great global standard, because as a super connector we also benefit from various ESG standards, whether it is European or closer here in Asia,” said Roland Yau, who is Managing Director of a venture capital company. “Companies do come here to learn, to understand how they (can) implement some of that knowledge going back. And that includes whether they invest in Hong Kong projects, so they can learn through that, or they help Hong Kong companies expand back to their local economies.”

Business matching sessions are another fixture of the summit. This year’s sessions will cover more than 280 investment projects and will involve more than 800 one-on-one project-matching meetings. The number of MOUs (memorandum of understanding) signed at this year’s forum is anticipated to be similar to last year’s 21. Afterwards, the council will follow up on promising projects to facilitate deals.

In addition to hosting large-scale forums in Hong Kong, the council also organises outreach activities. In May this year, it co-organised a joint business mission, led by the Ministry of Commerce and the Belt & Road Office, that saw delegates from Mainland China and Hong Kong visit Hungary and Kazakhstan.

Hill Wang, Founder & CEO of a local fintech company that specialises in stablecoins, joined the delegation and signed MOUs with the Astana International Financial Centre and an oil and gas company during the visit.

He said the trip allowed him to understand business opportunities worth further exploration and investment, in Kazakhstan.

“For example, the traditional settlement process for cross-border transactions between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan can be slow due to the involvement of multiple intermediaries, typically taking five to ten days to complete. Stablecoins using blockchain technology can complete within 30 seconds, allowing companies to conduct international business more efficiently.”

The council will set up new consultant offices in Bangladesh and Cambodia to further expand its network along the Belt & Road.