Hong Kong and cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are stepping up cross-boundary collaboration on the low-altitude economy, both within the region and with Belt and Road partner countries, with common standards, airworthiness certification and regulatory alignment emerging as key priorities.

Speakers at a thematic session of the Belt and Road Summit 2026 in Hong Kong on Thursday said the combination of manufacturing capacity, research expertise, international financing and regulatory experience could help connect China’s rapidly developing low-altitude sector with overseas markets under the Belt and Road framework.

Michael Wong Wai-lun, deputy financial secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, said Hong Kong will leverage its strengths in standard-setting and research and development to promote the harmonization of common standards and the commercialisation of innovative low-altitude-economy applications.

More than 140 projects have been approved under Hong Kong’s low-altitude economy regulatory sandbox program, covering applications such as delivery, infrastructure inspection and materials lifting, Wong said.

“A further 33 projects have been selected for the Sandbox X initiative, which focuses on more advanced and complex trials,” he said.

“The challenges we are addressing domestically, including safety standards, airspace coordination and infrastructure support, are similar to those facing many of our Belt and Road partners,” Wong said.

Experts said international coordination will become increasingly important as the industry moves beyond small drones toward larger electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs.

Hartmut Fricke, professor of air transport and logistics at Dresden University of Technology in Germany, said the European Union had adopted a risk-based regulatory approach for urban air mobility.

“While smaller unmanned aircraft are already being deployed in areas such as goods transport, certification standards for heavier aircraft — potentially weighing several tonnes — remain insufficiently clear,” Fricke said.

“Whatever you do in urban air mobility, (it should) be equally safe to conventional air transport,” he said, calling for closer China-Europe cooperation on data-sharing and safety certification.

Rainer Hoffmann, chief strategy officer of Shanghai Digauto Automobile Technology, a developer of autonomous vehicles and drones, said safety and regulations are fundamental to the development of the low-altitude economy.

Hoffmann, a German expert who also works with research institutions in Hong Kong, said international cooperation on regulation and rule-making is essential to the sector’s development, making Hong Kong a strategic venue for communication, cooperation and coordination.

Ren Haitao, a consultant at the Macao University of Science and Technology, said standards are central to the globalisation of low-altitude aviation, particularly in ensuring flight safety and facilitating cross-border operations.

China has participated in international standards-setting through organizations including the International Organization for Standardization, he said.

Tan Gangyi, head of the Low-Altitude Economy Institute at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said the Greater Bay Area, particularly Hong Kong, is positioning itself as a test bed for cross-border commercial applications and regulatory innovation.

Tan is leading projects related to a dedicated cross-border low-altitude logistics corridor, regulatory sandboxes and industrial standards in the region. He said the low-altitude economy could eventually reshape urban governance by creating a new layer of civil-management systems above cities.

“We are working on a city in the sky above the city on the ground,” said Bakhtiyar Mukhametkaliyev, Kazakhstan’s vice-minister of artificial intelligence and digital development.

Laurence Cheung Chi-chong, chief technology officer of the Hong Kong Productivity Council, said Hong Kong isa taking the lead in several areas and is ready to serve Belt and Road countries in low-altitude-economy development.

Glauco Augusto de Paula Caurin, head of the Aeronautical Engineering Department at the Sao Carlos School of Engineering of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, said his country hopes that Hong Kong can serve as a two-way bridge, connecting technology as well as the diverse applications needed in Brazil and more widely in South America.

Contact the writer at jessicachen@chinadailyhk.com