In an era when climate rules are reshaping international trade, Chinese companies ambitious to expand globally face mounting pressure to green their supply chains and embrace digital transformation. Hong Kong is well positioned to play an enabling role. By leveraging the city’s strengths in green finance, compliance services, logistics coordination, and digital innovation, Chinese enterprises can convert what would otherwise be regulatory burdens into opportunities for competitive differentiation.

Environmental standards have become a determining factor for market access. For China’s exporters, the new policy environment cuts both ways. It encourages long-term competitiveness through cleaner production and better data governance, but it also presents immediate difficulties. Many small and medium-sized firms lack unified emissions data, standardized reporting systems or affordable access to certification. For these companies, the cost of compliance can appear to outweigh the commercial benefits, especially when margins are thin.

Chinese companies now face a dual transformation challenge: they must green their supply chains while simultaneously digitizing them. The two goals are increasingly inseparable. As more Chinese firms invest in overseas production, warehousing or fulfillment centers, to be closer to end markets, they must also deal with unfamiliar regulatory and commercial systems. In such cases, digital infrastructure becomes a bridge to navigate foreign environments effectively. Solutions ranging from e-commerce platforms to real-time logistics tracking can help Chinese exporters maintain compliance, shorten delivery times, and strengthen trust with global buyers.

Hong Kong’s strategic role

Beyond green finance, Hong Kong offers a suite of capabilities that closely match the evolving needs of mainland enterprises seeking to go global. The city is Asia’s leading center for arranging international green and sustainable bonds, providing about 45 percent of the region’s issuance in 2024. This financial depth allows mainland firms to fund low-carbon upgrades more efficiently.

As global trade shifts toward carbon accountability and digital transparency, Hong Kong can speed up this process by providing capital access, regulatory clarity, supply chain intelligence, and digital connectivity

Hong Kong also possesses mature professional services in legal, accounting, sustainability disclosure and environmental, social and governance verification. As the city aligns with international reporting standards, including a road map tied to global sustainability disclosure frameworks, it is positioned to act as a compliance gateway for Chinese companies preparing to sell into Europe and other advanced markets. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s logistics and digital-trade infrastructure continues to modernize. Expansion of the Trade Single Window, together with growing data-exchange cooperation with mainland authorities, will allow exporters to complete customs and trade documentation with fewer procedural steps. Smart-port initiatives and e-documentation pilots with regional partners support smoother cross-border movement of goods.

Mainland enterprises and policymakers in the special administrative region should pursue a strategic game plan. The former should actively leverage the latter’s deep green finance markets to fund sustainability upgrades.

Since data is the new currency of green trade compliance, Hong Kong can work with mainland authorities and industry groups to develop unified carbon footprint accounting and reporting platforms. One idea is to establish a Greater Bay Area carbon data exchange or registry, where suppliers across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao can log their emissions in a standardized format.

The SAR can package its professional services into a “launchpad” program for mainland enterprises. When a Chinese company is planning to enter the European market, Hong Kong could provide a bundled suite of services — all coordinated through a single window, thus significantly reducing the uncertainty and risk that Chinese firms face abroad. From fostering cross-boundary green innovation hubs to enhancing digital connectivity and e-commerce channels, the city can be the digital launchpad for mainland brands’ expansion in the world.

As global trade shifts toward carbon accountability and digital transparency, Hong Kong can speed up this process by providing capital access, regulatory clarity, supply chain intelligence, and digital connectivity.

The author is director of research at the Institute of Innovative and High-Quality Development (Hong Kong).

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.