The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s world-class strengths in finance, hospitality, real estate, and professional services make the city perfectly positioned to meet the demands of the Central Asian market — an undiscovered gold mine waiting to be developed, a prominent business leader has said.
Cliff Zhang, CEO and co-founder of Hong Kong-based asset manager Templewater, who will join Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s upcoming delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in June, said he believed that the visit would effectively boost economic and trade cooperation and momentum between the two places.
The mission to the Central Asian nations marks the largest delegation organized by the current-term HKSAR government.
Zhang, who joined the previous two delegations led by the chief executive to the Middle East, said Central Asia has a wider cooperation scope compared to the Middle East, as it has a more urgent need for the introduction of foreign technology and investment.
“Central Asia can be described as an undiscovered gold mine, waiting for everyone to invest and develop it,” said Zhang.
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For example, Zhang noted that Central Asia’s demand for residential properties, hotels, and commercial buildings will continue to grow alongside its economic development. Hong Kong has accumulated vast experience in urban planning and public transportation management, which has already drawn interest from Central Asian cities to learn from its experience.
Zhang pointed out that Central Asia is an essential hub connecting the Chinese mainland, the Middle East, and Europe via land transport, holding an irreplaceable strategic position. The region possesses rich natural resource reserves with a large number of minerals, offering a greater advantage than the Middle East in terms of natural resource diversification.
Kazakhstan, with a per capita GDP exceeding $15,000 in 2025, is the largest economy and the largest country by area in Central Asia. Uzbekistan, the second-largest country and the most populous in the region, is home to more than 38 million.
Both countries have a young population structure, which helps boost consumption power and productivity, Zhang noted.
Zhang’s company signed an agreement with Oman last September to launch the country's initial energy transition fund, with an initial capital of $200 million.
Middle Eastern countries have abundant capital, Zhang said. As an international financial center, Hong Kong has unique advantages in financing and professional services. The city’s pivotal role as a superconnector can channel idle capital from the Middle East into industrial investments in Central Asia, while simultaneously guiding capable enterprises from Hong Kong and the mainland to enter and develop in the region, he added.
Zhang said that he will announce several collaborations during this visit, including partnering with Oman's sovereign wealth fund to invest in Central Asia.
Zhang said that over the past few years, the delegation led by the chief executive has continuously expanded in scale, attracting more enterprises to participate. This reflects a further deepening of the willingness to cooperate between Hong Kong and mainland companies, and to jointly expand overseas markets.
Hong Kong and mainland enterprises are highly complementary and have significant room for cooperation, Zhang said, noting that such visits led and coordinated by the HKSAR government can make "going global" cooperation more efficient.
Enterprises’ "going global" strategy is never achieved overnight, Zhang said, after the SAR government sets the direction for development and opens up external channels, it still requires corporate representatives to invest time, resources, and effort to implement the projects.
Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com
