Finance chief urges Hong Kong to enhance global standing amid shifting geopolitics

Hong Kong will step up efforts to bolster its global standing and strengthen links between mainland China and the West, enabling the city to better serve as a “superconnector” and “super value-adder” for the nation amid growing geopolitical complexities, the financial chief has said.Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in his weekly blog on Sunday that the international community was seeking to foster bilateral and regional cooperation to ensure flexibility in trade and resilience in production and supply chains, given the gloomy global economic outlook marked by intensified geopolitical conflicts and high energy prices.He underlined Hong Kong’s role in a complicated geopolitical environment as the mainland continued to pursue high-quality development, opening-up policies and cooperation.“As the two-way gateway between China and the world, Hong Kong’s roles as a ‘superconnector’ and ‘super value-adder’ will become increasingly vital amid today’s complex and shifting global landscape,” he wrote.“How to further consolidate and enhance Hong Kong’s unique roles and functions of internationalisation and global connectivity, and strengthen its connection and collaboration with the mainland, is a task we must continue to strengthen in the future.”Chan, who is attending the two-day China-development-forum" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="51833" data-entity-type="event">China Development Forum in Beijing, said he would take part in a symposium to discuss Hong Kong’s contribution to the global transition towards a green economy.He noted that the city had ample room for growth, given its strengths in green finance and technology, particularly as energy resilience had become a pressing global concern. The US-Israel strikes on Iran on February 28 have since fuelled an oil crisis.