Speech by CE at BritCham Summit 2026 (English only) (with photos)
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Mr Paul McSheaffrey (Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong), Mr Paul McComb (Executive Director of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. It is a pleasure to join you, once again, for the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong's annual summit.
This year's summit theme, "Navigating Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan: Strategy to Opportunity", is an opportune focus for today's event – and these next five years. I might add only an "s" to the word "opportunity" in the theme – because I'm confident that, working together, the opportunities ahead of both Hong Kong and the UK (United Kingdom) are as numerous as they are wide-ranging, and far-reaching.
For the next few minutes, I would like to offer a few thoughts on the Plan and some of the long-term prospects it offers our economy, our community and you – UK businesses, institutions and investors.
Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan is our roadmap for strategic development. It will enable us to align with our country's National 15th Five-Year Plan, better integrating into and serving overall national development. Doing so will open the doors to the myriad opportunities arising from our country's development.
The Plan will reinforce our standing in several critical areas. They include the development of our "four centres and one hub", that is Hong Kong's long-standing status as international financial, shipping and trade centres, as well as our development into an international innovation and technology centre and hub for high-calibre talent, while boosting our unique role in connecting China, our country with the world at large.
And let me emphasise, upfront, that Hong Kong will continue to uphold free trade, maintain zero customs tariffs and support the rules-based multilateral trading system. As you all know, Hong Kong shares a common law heritage with the UK – some say that we speak the same legal language, and just serve better dim sum. They maintain intact – both the legal part and the culinary part.
Just last week, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority held the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit, in its fifth edition now. The signature event brought together almost 300 global financial leaders, including some 120 group chairpersons and CEOs, with quite a number of them from the UK.
Vice Premier of the State Council Mr He Lifeng addressed the high-powered audience by video, and remarked that, "'one country, two systems' is Hong Kong's greatest advantage and source of confidence in maintaining long-term prosperity and stability", and emphasised that finance, and its continuing progress, is the centrepiece of our Five-Year Plan.
That means boosting Hong Kong's standing as a global financial centre. It also means expanding our offerings as a global offshore Renminbi business hub, asset and wealth management centre and risk management centre.
Fintech is no less central to our financial future. Hong Kong, as you know, ranks third in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index. In fintech offerings, we came first, globally. Last year, Hong Kong became the world's No.1 cross-boundary wealth management centre.
During last week's Hong Kong FinTech Week, our Monetary Authority announced four new measures to boost Hong Kong's fintech capabilities. They target data and payment infrastructure, artificial intelligence, resilience enhancement and the tokenisation of finance. The initiatives echo the Five-Year Plan's fintech development strategies.
We will also continue to expand our international economic and trade network, while developing a high value-added supply chain services centre, digital trade and cross-border e-commerce.
There's gold in the Five-Year Plan, too. We are committed to creating a commodity trading system built around gold. Our Gold Central Clearing and Settlement System, let me add, is expected to launch early next year, with Delivery Connect linking to the Shanghai Gold Exchange. Alignment with the London Bullion Market Association standards is underway.
Hong Kong last year was the world's fifth-largest trading entity, with the UK, a much valued business partner. Last year, merchandise trade between us came in nearly 20 billion US Dollars. That, ladies and gentlemen, is up a cheering 26 per cent over 2024.
We have long invested in each other's economies, and we continue to do so. At the end of 2024, the UK was the fourth in inward direct investment into Hong Kong, and the sixth in outward direct investment from Hong Kong.
And the number of UK companies with a presence in Hong Kong reached 770 last year. That's up a seven per cent, year on year.
Those numbers reflect the strong ties between us. They also underline the continuing confidence British companies and investors have in Hong Kong.
For those of you who regularly make the journey from London, I like to think of our eight-hour time difference with the UK this way: Hong Kong is where you can have a full English breakfast, a bowl of wonton noodles for lunch, and a board meeting in between – all before London wakes up for its first coffee. And you are the best person to tell this story.
And that may precisely be the point, with our similar financial standards, and different time zones – one of us is on the day shift, while the other is on the night shift, covering the whole clock together.
Complementarity has long been one of the reasons you have confidence in the flourishing future we're building together.
Central to that future is the Northern Metropolis. A key growth engine under our Five-Year Plan, it will also deepen Hong Kong's participation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a cluster city development that brings together Hong Kong, Macao and nine Mainland cities. It has a population of some 88 million and a combined GDP that rivals the world's tenth-largest economy.
The Northern Metropolis, after all, is adjacent to Shenzhen, the tech powerhouse of the Greater Bay Area. The unique business proposition of the Northern Metropolis of Hong Kong is integrating technology, industry, education, talent and urban development, and doing so on the doorstep of the world's second-largest economy. And with its full support.
The Northern Metropolis will open up vast new opportunities in life and health technology, AI, robotics, microelectronics and other emerging industries. Education and research, too.
Three university towns will rise in the Northern Metropolis. They will span more than 1 000 hectares, within which 300 hectares are dedicated to the campus area, while the rest is dedicated to technology and industry, as well as residential and recreational development – amalgamating the five elements of education, technology, industry, talent and urban development to complement and support each other.
That was a point made by different leaders of UK institutions, when they attended our Global University Presidents and Leaders' Summit, and World Class University Presidents Forum, over the last couple of weeks in Hong Kong.
The vice-chancellor and president of the University of Warwick Professor Stuart Croft referred to our concept of economic growth driven by universities and industry, and facilitated by the Government, a "triple helix model", hailing its future and global orientation. The president of Lucy Cavendish College of the University of Cambridge Mr Girish Menon said he saw "many parallels between Hong Kong and Cambridge" – "putting students and young people at the centre, and developing a strong research, enterprise and innovation ecosystem around them".
Hong Kong institutions have a long history of partnering with UK universities, from offering mutual exchange places and scholarship programmes, to research collaboration and joint degree programmes.
I believe the time is ripe for expanding our post-secondary collaboration. Despite being a small city with only 111 000 hectares, Hong Kong has five universities in the world's top 100. And, in the latest QS World University Rankings: Asia, released this month by the London-based international higher education research organisation, Hong Kong placed five universities among Asia's top 10, with three of them among Asia's top five.
Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan is committed to promoting the integrated development of education, technology and talent.
It puts a central focus on Hong Kong's rise as an international hub for education. It calls, too, for the expedited development of the Northern Metropolis university towns.
To bring the Northern Metropolis – and its world-beating technology, industry and educational ambitions – to bright life, we need world-class talent. And plenty of it.
I invite UK companies, investors, universities and research institutions to explore the opportunities arising from the Northern Metropolis – to work with Hong Kong and our Greater Bay Area partners to develop innovative solutions, services and businesses.
Attracting talent is central to the Five-Year Plan. Last month, Hong Kong Talent Engage, a Government agency that promotes our talent admission schemes and supports incoming talent, organised its first talent and career showcase event in London, bringing together more than 50 companies and organisations from Hong Kong and the Mainland.
In addition, campus engagement sessions were held at Oxford and Cambridge, connecting UK graduates and professionals with career opportunities here. The three UK events attracted over 4 500 visits, reflecting the interest UK talent has in exploring career opportunities in Hong Kong.
My thanks to BritCham Chair Mr Paul McSheaffrey, for joining the talent showcase event in London. And a BritCham delegation, led by Mr McSheaffrey, is set to visit London to promote Hong Kong business opportunities later this month. That will be the chamber's fifth UK trade missions, in this year alone.
Ladies and gentlemen, with Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan setting out our strategic directions, Hong Kong is entering a bold new phase of development. Or as the BritCham puts it: "For the international business community, the question is no longer what the plan contains, but how to capitalise on it."
Exactly that. With the Northern Metropolis emerging as our new growth engine, we can connect companies, investors and talent with long-term opportunities – in Hong Kong, our country and around the world.
My thanks to the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong for once again organising this essential annual gathering.
I'm pleased to add that next year, 2027 is BritCham's 40th anniversary in Hong Kong. It also marks the 30th anniversary of the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region)'s establishment.
There is always much to celebrate between long-standing friends and business partners.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all a rewarding Summit and the best of business, health and happy times, too, this coming anniversary year.
Thank you.
Ends/Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Issued at HKT 10:10
Issued at HKT 10:10
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