Transport

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a giant trade area extending from the fringes of the Arctic (Hokkaido, Japan, main picture) to the Antarctic (New Zealand) and encompassing the giant economy of Mainland China as well as Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia.

SmartHK is the Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s (HKTDC) annual promotion event held in leading cities in Mainland China (including Guangzhou, Jinan, Chengdu, Fuzhou and Hangzhou) since 2011. The conference-oriented forum offers interactive sessions and business matching services for enterprises.

Business confidence in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area rallied to a record high in the first quarter of this year after the Mainland China-Hong Kong borders fully reopened.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) this week launched the Foshan GoGBA Business Support Centre for Hong Kong businesses, a facility co-organised by the HKTDC and Foshan Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

As the Belt and Road Initiative reaches its 10th anniversary the international intermodal railway – the China-Laos Express connecting Chengdu, Chongqing and Vientiane, the capital of Laos – has gone into operation, greatly improving the flow of people and logistics between Mainland China and Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) members, and has also led more and more mainland companies to choose to expand their business to Southeast Asia.

Logistics was one of the hardest-hit industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the China Shanghai Containerized Freight Index increasing more than five-fold between June 2020 and January 2022 – then plunging back to its 2019 level by last month.