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Jointly organised by InvestHK of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government and Zhuhai Municipal People's Government, the seminar ¡§Hong Kong and Zhuhai: Your Winning Formula in China¡¨ attracted over 150 senior Israeli business executives in Tel Aviv, Israel on November 25 (Tel Aviv time).
This was the first joint promotion seminar in Israel. Participants actively joined in the discussions concerning the business environments and opportunities in the two cities.
The seminar began with welcome remarks by Mr Zhao Jun, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in the State of Israel and Mr Gil Haskel, Director of Economic Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, followed by keynote speeches by Mr Mike Rowse, Director-General of Investment Promotion at InvestHK, and Mr Zhou Feng, Vice-Director of the Zhuhai Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau (BOFTEC).
In his speech, Mr Rowse emphasised Hong Kong's role as a springboard to access the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) region. He said, ¡§Located in the heart of the region with excellent transportation, communications and technology infrastructure, Hong Kong is ideal for Israeli companies to establish a regional hub and manage their regional operations, while putting their manufacturing and production facilities in Zhuhai.¡¨
Hong Kong is Israel's largest trading partner in Asia, and Israel is Hong Kong's second largest export market in the Middle East. In 2007, bilateral trade between the two markets reached US$3.3 billion.
Mr Rowse continued, ¡§Israeli companies and entrepreneurs play a significant role in Hong Kong's business community. They are a vibrant and diverse group, active in telecommunications, technology, IT, high technology, medical products, safety and security, transportation and logistics, diamonds, trading and financial services. We encourage Israeli companies to establish businesses in Hong Kong, and take advantage of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) to enter into the Mainland market. This is a triple win situation - for Hong Kong, for Zhuhai and, most importantly, for Israeli companies.¡¨
¡§Indeed, the two cities will be even better connected by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which will be built with the cooperation of the Guangdong Province, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR governments,¡¨ Mr Rowse noted.
In his speech, Mr Zhou Feng highlighted the unique advantages of his city as a top manufacturing base in the GPRD region.¡§Zhuhai is located in the southern part of Guangdong Province, one of the most dynamic and most powerful regions of China's economy. It is one of the earliest Special Economic Zones established in China, the logistics centre in the Pearl River Delta, the transportation focal point in southern China and the major gateway to the west of Guangdong Province. Zhuhai has been one of the fastest growing cities in China; its GDP jumped 16.5% in 2007.¡¨
Mr Zhou added, ¡§Zhuhai has a diversified economy with seven key industrial clusters: electrical appliances, electronic information, petrochemical, biomedicine, IC, software and printing supplies. Last year, the utilised foreign direct investment in Zhuhai reached USD1.029 billion.¡¨
The seminar programme also included case study presentations by Mr Yigal Livne, co-founder of China Israel Value Capital-Private Equity Fund; Mr Chaim Friedman, CFO of StarLIMS Asia Pacific; and Mr Marc Tannenbaum, Partner of Leo Schachter Diamonds. They shared their successful investment experiences in Hong Kong and the Greater PRD region. Mr Ohad Levitt, Consultant, Boughton Peterson Yang Anderson Solicitors, Agents for Trade, provided advice on doing business in Hong Kong and China. The Head of Global Business Development, Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, Mr Moshe Leder, and the Regional Director, Middle East and Africa of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Mr Jeff Ambjorn, briefed participants on their services to assist Israeli companies in developing their businesses in China.
The programme concluded with a consultation session in the afternoon. InvestHK and Zhuhai representatives provided free and on-site advice to companies with keen interest to invest in the GPRD.
Ends/Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Issued at HKT 10:27
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