HKETO Newsroom

Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Toronto) (HKETO), Ms Emily Mo, spoke at the 9^th Annual Transpacfic Entrepreneurial Conference hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (CanChamHK) and the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association (HKCBA) on March 2 (Toronto time). This year's conference discussed the latest opportunities of investing in Canada and Hong Kong as both Canada and Hong Kong are ready for a major comeback from the pandemic.

In delivering opening remarks on the theme “Creating Bilateral Business Footprints via New Initiatives in Hong Kong and Canada”, Ms Mo said that Hong Kong had been on the path of orderly and progressive reopening since last quarter, and had launched the “Hello Hong Kong” campaign to welcome visitors from Canada and all over the world to return to Hong Kong for business and leisure.

Ms Mo highlighted that Hong Kong and Canada have rich and mutually rewarding relations in business, culture and people ties. “The bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and Hong Kong saw a 23.5% increase from 2020 to 2021, while foreign direct investment from Hong Kong to Canada also recorded 12 billion Canadian dollars (or 70 billion Hong Kong dollars) by the end of 2020” said Ms Mo.

Ms Mo remarked that the majority of the world’s economic growth will come from Asia generally and China more specifically. She believed that Hong Kong, under the “One Country, Two System” arrangement and with the support from the Central government in its 14^th Five-Year Plan and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development initiative, will play increasingly significant roles to connect Canadian businesses to the vast markets of the mainland China and other parts of Indo-Pacific region.

Ms Mo moved on to introduce the new institutional setups by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, including the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises as well as a Dedicated Team for Attracting Businesses and Talents within HKETO, to attract enterprises, investments and talents to enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness.

“The package of new measures on talent attraction launched include the Top Talent Pass Scheme designed to entice graduates from the world’s top 100 universities (including six Canadian universities) or talents earning HKD 2.5 million or above per year to pursue their career in Hong Kong,” Ms Mo said.

She expressed gratitude to CanChamHK for its support to co-organise the “Hong Kong-Canada Talent Metaverse” with Invest Hong Kong and HKETO to attract Canadian talents to work in Hong Kong. “On this interactive virtual event platform, CanChamHK members or employers with Canadian connection can post Hong Kong job opportunities for application by Canada’s students and young professionals,” she explained.

In addition, Head of Invest Hong Kong in Canada, Mr Christopher Chen, joined the panel discussion on connecting talent footprints between Canada and Hong Kong as moderator to share views on innovative approaches to closing the talent gap and managing expectations.

In its ninth year, the Transpacific Entrepreneurial Conference is the platform, through a mix of online and in-person events, to discuss the latest opportunities for companies looking to expand into Canada, Hong Kong and Greater China as well as the impact and possibilities the Greater Bay Area Initiatives would bring to Hong Kong. Entitled "Connecting & Expanding Business Footprints", the two-day conference featured 12 in-person and virtual panel discussions and networking sessions on different themes.

On the same day, Ms Mo spoke at the Webinar on Funding and Business Opportunities in Hong Kong for Canadian Health Care, Biotech and Life Science Companies, co-organised by HKETO, Invest Hong Kong, Hong Kong Trade Development Council and Calgary Economic Development to discuss the opportunities in funding, procurement, partnerships and clinical trials that Hong Kong offers to companies in the health care, biotech and life sciences sectors.