Earlier this year, the HKTDC and Zhaoqing Municipal Commerce Bureau signed an MoU to establish the Zhaoqing GoGBA Hong Kong business support centre to provide more local support to Hong Kong businesses interested in developing in Zhaoqing.
Last week, the centre was inaugurated in the city, the largest territory of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in terms of surface area.
Hong Kong is a key source of foreign investment for Zhaoqing. As of January this year, 1,652 Hong Kong-funded enterprises have developed in Zhaoqing, involving US$7.08 billion in investment and US$4.86 billion in registered capital.
Hong Kong and Zhaoqing have always cooperated in trade, science and technology, culture, tourism and education. Hong Kong companies continued to invest in Zhaoqing last year, with 85 new Hong Kong-funded companies, a year-on-year increase of 37.1%.
Peter Wong, HKTDC Southern China Regional Director, Yang Yunhui, Zhaoqing Municipal Government Deputy Secretary General, Kong Lingju, Zhaoqing Municipal Commerce Bureau Director, and Karen Wong, HKTDC Southern China Marketing Director, attended the centre launch.
Mr Wong expressed the hope that, through the support centre, the HKTDC can jointly organise activities, keep track of Zhaoqing latest policies and organise visits for Hong Kong enterprises, helping them understand key sectors in Zhaoqing, identify development prospects and seize opportunities.
Ms Yang also introduced Zhaoqing’s development plan, F&B industry support policies and the city’s investment environment.
On the occasion of the centre opening, the HKTDC organised a food industry event on-site to enable Hong Kong businesses interested in Zhaoqing’s thriving food industry to understand the latest opportunities.
More than 40 food and beverage companies from Zhaoqing and Hong Kong joined the conference, including purchasers, distributors and manufacturers, to network and discuss collaboration opportunities.
Local food and beverage industry companies, including Dinghu Spring, Huangzhonghuang and Yuanqi Senlin, also displayed products and networked with delegation members.
A group of Hong Kong entrepreneurs organised by the HKTDC and Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong met F&B company representatives and visited the Zhaoqing High-Tech Zone Innovation and Entrepreneurship Science Park and processing firms in Zhaoqing, among others, to learn about business opportunities.
Food processing firms in Zhaoqing specialise in freezing technology and cold-chain logistics.
The Zhaoqing Municipal Agriculture Bureau said the city has more than 40 food enterprises, which produce and process livestock, poultry, aquatic products, grains, vegetables and other agricultural products. The city’s prepared-food enterprises have an annual turnover of some RMB3 billion (US$138 million).
The Zhaoqing government strongly supports food processors. In terms of policies, it has issued measures focused on preparing land for the prepared vegetable industry, talent cultivation and export registration.
Zhaoqing’s Gaoyao District set up Mainland China's food processing park in 2021 and introduced upstream and downstream food preparation chains.
The park integrates functions of the meat and aquaculture processing industry chain, including aquaculture and poultry breeding and processing, cold chain distribution, pilot research and development, inspection and testing, e-commerce finance and popular science tourism.
The park will focus on creating prepared dishes in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
With the opening of the GoGBA business support centre in Zhaoqing, the HKTDC now has a physical presence in all nine mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, to offer comprehensive support to Hong Kong businesses keen to capture the region’s many arising opportunities.
