NINGBO and Hong Kong share a special connection thanks to the many merchants from the former who became leaders in the latter’s business community. It was this group that spearheaded the first Ningbo-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Forum in Ningbo in 2002. Since then, the annual forum has been held alternately in the two cities. The forum this year took place in Ningbo from November 2 to 7, when it was expanded to be a platform involving new participants.

“Hong Kong is an important gathering place of the Ningbobang, a well-recognized group of Ningbo merchants abroad; half of the Ningbobang are in Hong Kong, and most of them are leaders in fields and respected for their great contributions to society,” said Zhao Jun, deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Ningbo.

“Hong Kong is also the biggest overseas investment source for Ningbo. Over half of the investment brought to Ningbo is from Hong Kong, with the total reaching US$23 billion.”

Ningbo, a city long known for its prosperous business community, has expanded the forum to include the neighboring cities of Taizhou and Zhoushan, as well as Hong Kong’s neighbor Macau. Among other topics, representatives and commercial leaders from the cities gathered to discuss joint development of markets in countries along the “Belt and Road,” a development and outbound investment initiative focused on connectivity and cooperation between China and the rest of Eurasia.

“Ningbo, Zhoushan and Taizhou have cooperated together as an integrated development area approved by the State Council, with an aim to build a competitive metropolitan area in the Yangtze River Delta,” said Tang Yijun, acting mayor of Ningbo.

“Hong Kong and Macau are international cities with springboards for mainland cities to connect to foreign countries. We set the theme of this forum as ‘Opening and Sharing, Cooperation and Win-Win,’ in the hope that we, a total of five cities, can cooperate in fields including shipping, logistics, finance, education and technology, culture and tourism, to share the benefits of the ‘Belt and Road’ market.”

The first consulting conference about investment in Hong Kong was held during the forum, providing companies from Ningbo and Taizhou a better understanding of the laws and tax policies around overseas investment.

“We are now encouraging our local companies to establish businesses outside Ningbo and Chinese mainland. Ningbo’s private enterprises have invested US$2 billion in overseas regions this year,” said Wang Jianhou, vice mayor of Ningbo.

‘Super dealer’

“Hong Kong can play the role as a ‘super dealer’ as it is supported by the huge market of Chinese mainland and at the same time has good connections with foreign countries. It will help companies on Chinese mainland invest overseas in areas like finance, law and management,” said Paul Chan, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s secretary for development.

According to Chan, there are over 560 Ningbo enterprises in Hong Kong, 10 of which have launched initial public offerings in excess of 6 billion yuan (US$880 million).

“Each year, Hong Kong issues market information publicly from the government and from private companies, and if we have plans about cooperating with overseas countries, not only through the forum but also through the Internet, we can find partners quickly,” said Xu Bin, deputy-general manger of Ningbo Baosi Power Manufacture Co, a local company that listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2015.

Hong Kong is also looking to attract more investment from Chinese mainland by offering favorable tax policies.

“Hong Kong is an international finance center and also the world’s largest offshore center for Chinese yuan. To attract more companies to set up their finance departments in Hong Kong, Hong Kong’s government issued a tax policy this June that, for some companies with good development potential, reduces tax profits by half, from 16.5 percent to 8.25 percent,” said Francis Ho, associate director-general of Invest Hong Kong.

In addition to overseas investment connections, the traditional cooperation between Ningbo and Hong Kong is also rooted in education to support industry development.

“Ningbobang in Hong Kong donated to build Ningbo University three decades ago. Now, Ningbo plans to develop a medical town in Fenghua District, complete with a series of hospitals, medical schools and pharmaceutical manufacturers and The Chinese University of Hong Kong will cooperate with Ningbo University to educate a group of medical talents to support the medical industry in the district,” said Chen Jinhui, director of international exchanges and cooperation, Ningbo Education Bureau.

Unique strengths

According to Chen, over 40 of Ningbo’s middle and senior schools have signed long-term education cooperation contracts with Hong Kong schools. Through the forum this year, according to Chen, another five deals were inked including a cooperation between University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

This year’s event also included a platform to connect Hong Kong brands with vendors and shoppers in Ningbo.

The first Hong Kong Style Shopping Festival was held at the Ningbo International Conference and Exhibition Center during the forum. According to organizers at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, over 200 Hong Kong brands took part in the festival, bringing consumer items like clothing, jewelry and food to over 250,000 visitors.

“We hope people in Ningbo and companies from Hong Kong can have a closer connection through the cooperation forum we hold annually. It’s not only the four-day shopping fair that counts, but the platform that we build to trigger deep cooperation between the two cities that will influence people’s lives,” said Jacky Chung, regional director of eastern and central China, Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

A trade council room was set up in the shopping fair, where 300 Ningbo companies came to discuss cooperation with Hong Kong’s brands.

“We have good communication with local supermarkets and, in the short term, we will allocate our products in Ningbo,” said Dennis Yip, sales manager of Element International Holdings Co.

Apart from Ningbo and Hong Kong, new partners Taizhou, Zhoushan and Macau will make good use of the forum to achieve win-win results using their unique advantages.

“Taizhou is in the center of the coastline of Zhejiang Province. It is also a city supported by a strong private economy, with 90 percent of the city’s GDP and 80 percent of employment contributed by private enterprises. Local GPD last year reached 356 billion yuan, ranking it 48th in China,” said Zhang Bing, mayor of Taizhou.

“We hope companies in our city, through this forum initiated by Ningbo and Hong Kong, can also share in the world market.”

Zhoushan is developing a multi-modal transport system for foreign trade with an aim of becoming a shipping and logistics hub in the Yangtze River Delta Region.

“Zhoushan features rare deep-water port resources and is an important point in the Maritime Silk Road. Among China’s seven international shipping lines, there are six lines through Zhoushan and there are still 50 percent of our port resources waiting to be developed,” said Wen Nuan, mayor of Zhoushan.

Macau unveiled its permanent 250-square-meter showroom at the exhibition center during the cooperation forum to display foods and wines from Portuguese-speaking countries, including Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and East Timor.