When a Hong Kong-made 3D-printed titanium implant is surgically fitted into the body of a bone cancer patient in Almaty, Kazakhstan, something larger than a single operation is taking place. A city long caricatured as a financial enclave is exporting cutting-edge medical science to a region that, only a generation ago, seemed unreachable on any business map. That this quiet medical breakthrough takes place as Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu prepares to make his first official visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan early next month is not a coincidence. It is a signpost.
Koln 3D Technology, the company behind those implants, is precisely the sort of homegrown firm that ought to define the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s next chapter. The company uses metal 3D printing to create custom bone implants that surgeons insert into patients’ bodies, helping treat rare bone diseases that otherwise have no cure. Since 2022, Koln has contributed to the treatment of 12 bone cancer patients in Kazakhstan, and has now received official approval to export metal implants there. Its founder, Edmond Yau Wing-fung, stressed that Central Asian countries were rich in oil and minerals, and poised for tremendous growth. He intends to expand research, possibly build a factory in the region, and sign a second memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan’s leading cancer research institute during the chief executive’s June visit.
Indeed, his instinct is the right one, and it explains why the chief executive has his sights set on Central Asia. Lee will lead a 60-strong delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in early June — the largest overseas mission of his administration. More than 30 Hong Kong business leaders from sectors ranging from logistics to innovation and technology will join him, alongside about 30 entrepreneurs from 10 provinces, cities and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland, covering industries such as energy, mining, high-end manufacturing and car making. The composition of the delegation is itself the message: This is Hong Kong doing what it does best, acting as the connective tissue between mainland capability and frontier markets.
The numbers explain why Central Asia now demands attention. Kazakhstan, a key Belt and Road partner, is Central Asia’s largest economy and an emerging financial hub, with gross domestic product reaching $302.7 billion last year. Uzbekistan, the region’s most populous nation with over 38 million people, has cultivated stable economic growth at annual rates above 5 percent, with abundant gold and cotton bolstering its prospects. Bilateral trade between the mainland and Kazakhstan reached $48.8 billion in 2025, accounting for 46 percent of China’s trade with the region. Where the capital flows, professional services must follow — and that is Hong Kong’s enduring vocation.
The chief executive himself has framed the trip with admirable clarity, describing Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as the gateway for foreign capital into Central Asia, just as Hong Kong is the channel for foreign companies entering East and Southeast Asia. By establishing a new hub-to-hub collaboration model, he argues, a new corridor can be built between these regions to the benefit of Hong Kong’s trade and service industries. A hub-to-hub model is not diplomatic poetry. It is the practical recognition that, in a fragmenting world, no economy thrives in isolation.
Beyond rhetoric, however, the financial logic is already crystallizing. The first dual stock listing between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan was completed last year, while Kazakhstan now advances large-scale data center projects in a bid to become Central Asia’s leading digital hub — opportunities where Hong Kong’s expertise in fundraising and financial services will become increasingly important. Kazakhstan’s national railway company, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, is preparing for a triple listing in 2026 that would include the Hong Kong stock exchange. The Astana International Financial Centre, conceived from inception as a Central Asian offshore renminbi hub, is the natural counterpart to Hong Kong’s nearly trillion-renminbi liquidity for both jurisdictions.
Lee (Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu) and his all-star team’s Central Asia journey will not by itself transform our economy overnight. But it sets a direction. From titanium implants in Almaty to dim sum bonds in Astana, the contours of a new economic frontier are becoming visible. Our task is not to wonder whether the opportunity is real. It is to ensure that, when history’s caravan moves on, Hong Kong is at the front of it
Yet enthusiasm must be tempered with realism. Anyone who has done business in the region knows that the obstacles are not abstract. The language barrier is formidable, with Russian and Kazakh enjoying legal primacy, and notarized translations frequently determining the outcome of commercial disputes — local legal practitioners suggest that a striking proportion of Chinese firms that lose litigation in Kazakhstan do so because of translation flaws. Visa procedures remain cumbersome for HKSAR passport holders, who currently enjoy only 14 days of visa-free entry; longer business stays require Russian-language applications and Hague Apostille certification. And although the Astana International Financial Centre operates under a common-law framework familiar to Hong Kong lawyers, local bar admission remains a hurdle. The chief executive would do well to negotiate the establishment of a Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Astana — one that offers translation, visa facilitation and legal liaison — so that the trail blazed by pioneering firms is not lost to those who follow.
Equally important is humility. Central Asia is not a blank canvas onto which Hong Kong projects its preferences; it is a civilizational crossroads with its own genius. Kazakh nomadic heritage, Uzbek Islamic architecture and craftsmanship, Tajik Persian inheritance and the region’s mature experience in Islamic finance are all reservoirs from which Hong Kong itself could draw. Inviting Central Asian cultural exhibitions to M+ would deepen public familiarity; learning from regional expertise in Sharia-compliant financial products would enrich our own market. Reciprocity, not condescension, must be the guiding ethic. As Koln 3D’s executives have stressed, trust comes before contracts — understanding diversity, culture and clinical practice must precede commercial expansion. That patient approach should govern every Hong Kong firm operating in the region.
Finally, there is a deeper truth in this mission. Some 2,000 years ago, Zhang Qian (195-114 BC) journeyed to the Western Regions, or the territories in present-day Central Asia, helped open the Silk Road, knitting together Eurasian commerce and civilization. The contemporary Belt and Road Initiative is the modern heir to that vision, and Hong Kong — under the “one country, two systems” policy, with its common-law tradition, its renminbi depth, its bilingual professionals and its trusted institutions — is uniquely fitted to serve as its premier offshore platform. A Hong Kong that confines itself to old maps will shrink. A Hong Kong that travels with both national and global passports, so to speak, will flourish.
Lee and his all-star team’s Central Asia journey will not by itself transform our economy overnight. But it sets a direction. From titanium implants in Almaty to dim sum bonds in Astana, the contours of a new economic frontier are becoming visible. Our task is not to wonder whether the opportunity is real. It is to ensure that, when history’s caravan moves on, Hong Kong is at the front of it.
The author is the convener at China Retold, a member of the Legislative Council, and a member of the Central Committee of the New People’s Party.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
