Ma says TDC to step up pivot to Central Asia

Trade Development Council chairman Frederick Ma on Monday said the body would consider scaling up its presence in Central Asia. He said the TDC had already set up an office in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, and was planning to increase manpower there to handle increasingly active business dealings and information enquiries. For the next step, it would study upgrading the office or setting up more branches in other Central Asian countries. Eight companies from Belt and Road countries had, Ma added, submitted listing applications to the SAR. He also expressed hope that more companies in emerging markets would use Hong Kong's financial expertise to expand their businesses. Improved Sino-US relations, Ma stressed, would also be beneficial to the city. “For Hong Kong, our exports have been very strong. Our exports recorded over 40 percent increase in the first eight months of this year,” he said. “As a matter of fact, Trade Development Council has revised our export forecast to 42 to 47 percent recently in light of the strong exports. “So I think that, of course, good relationship between US and China is going to help, it’s not going to hurt, and we are continuing to [do] good business particularly in the AI and semiconductor sector.” Edited by...