Hong Kong a ‘trusted partner’ to drive Central Asia growth, city leader says

Hong Kong is committed to being a “trusted partner” in driving Central Asia’s emergence as a global growth engine, according to the city’s leader, who hailed the substantial outcomes achieved since his landmark mission to the region. In a virtual appearance at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Central Asia 2026 held in Astana on Monday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that a bank in his June delegation had since backed the Development Bank of Kazakhstan with US$785 million in financing. Kazakhstan’s national rail operator, KTZ, had also filed to list in Hong Kong, while a local family office had signed an agreement with the Central Asian country’s authorities to strengthen cooperation in sustainable energy, he said. Lee underscored that Central Asian countries – all important economies in the Belt and Road Initiative – possessed immense potential and opportunities for global businesses seeking to diversify their activities and strengthen international connections. The Belt and Road Initiative refers to a plan rolled out by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to grow global trade. “As we look ahead, the promise of Central Asia as a global growth engine is not to be missed. Hong Kong stands ready as your trusted partner, connecting markets, financing sustainable growth and driving seamless cross-boundary trade,” Lee said. In June, Lee led a record 70-strong business and professional delegation from Hong Kong and mainland China to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to forge new trade corridors amid geopolitical tensions, resulting in 96 deals worth US$1.65 billion. The city leader said on Monday that many enterprises in the delegation had successfully built strong rapport with their partners in Central Asia and had already commenced cooperation projects. Cheng Kefan, charge d’affaires ad interim at the Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan, said Hong Kong would play a unique role in the nation’s cooperation with Central Asia following Lee’s visit to the region earlier this year. He said China’s cooperation with the five Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – had drawn on deep historical ties and fast-growing investment. Even amid rising protectionism and geopolitical instability, Cheng said China’s engagement with Central Asia remained focused on a shared goal of high-quality development for a modernised region, driven by high-level strategic alignment and deeper collaboration in natural resources and the digital economy. “This type of collaboration, from shared ideals, values and stances, would exceed the traditional framework of geopolitics to establish a new model for international relations,” he said. Renat Bekturov, governor of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), said at the conference’s opening that there was significant potential to deepen financial and investment ties with China, one of Kazakhstan’s key strategic partners. “Through the AIFC and Astana International Exchange, we seek to connect Chinese capital and expertise with investment opportunities in Kazakhstan and across Central Asia, while opening new pathways for Kazakhstani businesses to access Chinese markets,” he said. He pointed to stronger hub-to-hub links between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan over the past 12 months, saying his office would now work to make conditions more practical for investors over the next two to three years by removing regulatory frictions to cross-border transactions. The AIFC governor said his organisation would deepen ties with Chinese legal institutions and push the Astana International Exchange to expand collaboration with counterparts in Hong Kong and on the mainland. “Our job is to make the exceptional ordinary, and to turn the Astana-Hong Kong route into a genuine market,” Bekturov said. The conference, co-organised by the AIFC, marked the debut of the SCMP’s flagship event in Central Asia. The event brought together policymakers, institutional investors and corporate delegates from more than 100 companies across the wider region, including the mainland, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Former city leader Leung Chun-ying, now a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said Central Asia was a key region in the Belt and Road Initiative. He was confident that bringing the conference to Astana would identify opportunities for broader economic and professional collaborations between China and Central Asian countries, particularly through Hong Kong’s role as a “superconnector”. SCMP publisher Tammy Tam said the publication served as a premier catalyst for global understanding and strategic intelligence, just as the city functioned as an irreplaceable bridge for business and trade. “We are uniquely positioned to bridge markets, foster high-level cross-border dialogue, and connect Central Asia’s rising dynamic with global capital and influence,” she said, calling the region “an extraordinarily promising market”. “In this gathering, we bring that vision directly to Astana – convening leaders across sectors to exchange insights, challenge perspectives and unlock transformative growth across macroeconomics, financial markets, mining and regional infrastructure.”

Hong Kong a ‘trusted partner’ to drive Central Asia growth, city leader says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Central Asia offers immense potential for global businesses, John Lee reveals as SCMP’s China Conference debuts in Astana

Central Asia offers immense potential for global businesses, John Lee reveals as SCMP’s China Conference debuts in Astana