Financial Secretary Paul Chan departs for Nanjing on 12 October with a 30-strong public-private delegation to deepen economic, innovation and people-to-people ties between Hong Kong and Jiangsu Province. The flagship event, a promotion conference themed “Jiangsu-Hong Kong Partnership: Setting Sail Together,” will showcase how Hong Kong’s finance and professional-services ecosystem can accelerate Mainland firms’ global expansion. Delegates include senior executives from Invest HK, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Science Park, Cyberport and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, alongside venture-capital, fintech and biotech chiefs. Over two days they will conduct business-matching sessions, visit green-tech laboratories and meet Jiangsu officials to discuss joint R&D funding and streamlined visa processing for researchers commuting between the two cities. A key agenda item is talent circulation. Chan will propose a pilot “Innovation Pass” allowing Hong Kong-based researchers to make multiple entries to Jiangsu for up to 180 days without separate project-based invitations. In return, Jiangsu is expected to explore mutual recognition of post-doctorate qualifications issued by Hong Kong universities, helping Mainland graduates take up I&T roles in the SAR under the existing Top Talent Pass Scheme. Chan will also deliver a keynote at Nanjing University emphasising Hong Kong’s role as “Asia’s financing super-connector” for Belt and Road projects and offshore RMB products. Legal experts on the trip will promote Hong Kong’s common-law arbitration as a risk-management tool for Jiangsu exporters facing US-EU trade remedies. The mission underscores Hong Kong’s “northbound strategy” of embedding itself in Mainland supply chains while attracting R&D mandates and high-value manufacturing back into the SAR. Observers note that Jiangsu’s GDP—China’s second-largest provincial economy—makes it a prime source of corporate tenants for Hong Kong’s science parks and cross-boundary office hubs.
Source: HKSAR Government Press Release
