The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region emerges as a crucial nexus for the Belt and Road Initiative, offering world-class financial services and green technology expertise, officials said at the Belt and Road Summit on Wednesday.

The remarks were made at a keynote luncheon at the ninth edition of the summit, themed “Building a Connected, Innovative and Green Belt and Road”, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the city’s $4 trillion stock market serves as an “ideal” pool for governments and companies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to fund infrastructure, green transition and community projects.

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Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, the city’s bourse operator, has added the Saudi Exchange, or Tadawul, and the Jakarta Stock Exchange, and two exchanges in the United Arab Emirates to its “recognized” exchanges list over the last two years, thereby providing a shortcut for firms listed on those exchanges to seek a secondary listing in Hong Kong.

The move “further expands our connectivity with these dynamic markets”, the finance chief said.

“Hong Kong will continue to leverage its unique position and advantages as an international center for finance, trade, shipping, and professional services to provide new opportunities and create value for economies, enterprises, and people involved in the Belt and Road Initiative,” Chan said.

Touting Hong Kong’s leadership in green finance, he noted that “over the past three years, green and sustainable debt issued or arranged in Hong Kong amounted to over $60 billion annually”.

Chan highlighted Hong Kong’s ambition to become a global hub for green technology and finance. “While Hong Kong is not a mass production base of electric vehicles, local tech firms are at the forefront of EV charging solutions,” he said.

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These companies have expanded into overseas markets including Thailand and Australia, Chan noted, adding that they are “supporting countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative in achieving zero-emission transportation”.

Dilma Rousseff, president of the New Development Bank, endorsed Hong Kong as a key international financial center connecting developed and developing economies.

“Hong Kong is well-positioned to contribute to developments (in economies involved in the initiative),” Rousseff said, adding that she hopes collaboration can be strengthened between the bank — the multilateral lender founded by the BRICS group of emerging-market countries — and Hong Kong.

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She also highlighted the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative to the development of the Global South, with more than $10 trillion having been invested there over the past decade.

The two-day event, which ends on Thursday, is hosted by the Hong Kong SAR government and its trade body, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The event attracted around 6,000 participants from some 70 countries and regions.

Contact the writer at tianyuanzhang@chinadailyhk.com