Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Friday called on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to further deepen cooperation with Jiangsu province and its capital city, Nanjing.
Chan made the remarks during separate meetings with Governor of Jiangsu province Liu Xiaotao and Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Nanjing Municipal Committee Zhou Hongbo, during his visit to Nanjing from Thursday to Friday.
The financial secretary said that Jiangsu and the SAR have all along maintained close and multilevel cooperation with frequent economic exchanges and fruitful results in areas such as finance, innovation and technology, education, and youth visits and exchanges.
Jiangsu has strong capabilities in technological innovation and advanced manufacturing, a solid industrial foundation, and a vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem, with a number of sectors taking leading positions globally, according to Chan.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong has the advantages of an international financial center and a friendly and highly internationalized business environment, making it an important platform for Chinese mainland enterprises to "go global", he said.
Chan stressed that the two places could explore more modes of cooperation and launch more collaborative projects, including organizing delegations from the SAR's financial, I&T, logistics and professional services sectors to visit Jiangsu.
On Friday morning, Chan attended an exchange session for technology enterprises organized by Huatai Securities, where he had in-depth exchanges with more than 10 I&T entrepreneurs from Jiangsu and other provinces. The participating enterprises covered frontier areas including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, semiconductors, embodied intelligence, the low-altitude economy and advanced manufacturing.
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Listening to their briefings on trends in the relevant industries and their development plans, Chan briefed them on the latest overall economic situation of the HKSAR, as well as the key focuses during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), including the strategy for the integrated development of education, technology, talent and industries.
Welcoming them to make use of the SAR's internationalized platform as their first stop and support base for going global and expanding their businesses, Chan also encouraged enterprises to consider listing in the city and establish their international business headquarters and cross-boundary treasury centers in the territory.
He urged them to make full use of the HKSAR's financial and professional services to strengthen their own development and position their production and supply chains.
The financial secretary also visited two I&T enterprises in Nanjing to gain an in-depth understanding of the city's development in high-end manufacturing and in life and health technology.
One of them specializes in intelligent equipment and industrial robots, with products applied in advanced manufacturing scenarios, while the other focuses on biotechnology research and development and is at the international forefront in areas such as gene and cell engineering.
Listed in the HKSAR, both enterprises leveraged the city's capital market to accelerate the commercialization of scientific research and their global deployment. Chan encouraged them to continue to expand and strengthen their businesses through the SAR.
Prior to his trip to Nanjing, Chan was in Shanghai from Wednesday to Thursday to attend the Lujiazui Forum and meet with leaders of central authorities and the Shanghai Municipal Government. He also visited local financial institutions and technological enterprises.
